“Mostly gone?” I said, staring at it.
Alex shrugged.
“Real estate was a good investment.”
Sophie gave him a look.
He looked almost embarrassed.
Inside, the refrigerator was stocked.
Fresh clothes waited for Sophie.
A nurse arrived.
Alex's people moved through the property quietly, never staring at her injuries.
One older man stopped when he saw Sophie.
His eyes filled with tears.
“Miss Brooks.”
She frowned.
“Do I know you?”
“No, ma'am. But I drove your father to the hospital the night you were born.”
Alex looked away.
The man smiled.
“He cried the whole way.”
“I did not.”
“You absolutely did.”
For the first time, I saw Sophie's father instead of Alex Brooks.
The man I had loved before fear and secrecy had poisoned everything.
It hurt more than I expected.
That afternoon, we told Sophie about Melissa.
She listened in stunned silence.
Then asked the only question that mattered.
