Chapter 13 - Sophia Returned To The House
Six weeks later, Sophia returned home.
The broken furniture was gone.
The kitchen floor had been professionally cleaned.
But one tile remained stained.
Ethan had considered replacing it.
Sophia asked him not to.
“Not yet.”
She stood over the place where she had fallen.
Her damaged wrist remained in a brace.
Her ribs still hurt.
She remembered more now.
Aaron’s gloves.
The smell of his jacket.
The sound of the chair breaking.
The terror of realizing he was not there to warn her.
Ethan watched from several feet away.
He did not touch her until she reached for him.
“I thought I was going to die.”
“I know.”
“I kept thinking you’d come home and nobody would tell you what
happened.”
Ethan swallowed.
“That almost happened.”
Sophia looked at him.
“I should’ve told you about the investigation.”
“Yes.”
“And Noah.”
“Yes.”
“You’re going to keep saying yes?”
“For a while.”
She laughed weakly.
Then became serious.
“I thought protecting you meant keeping you focused overseas.”
Ethan looked at the stained tile.
“Everyone in this story thought secrecy was protection.”
Richard.
Noah.
Sophia.
Even Thomas.
It had protected nobody for long.
Sophia leaned against him.
“We do it differently now.”
May you like
“Yes.”
That yes sounded different.
