Chapter 30
“There.”
A workman arrived with tools. Each strike against the plaster seemed to echo through the mansion.
I sat near the doorway with Lily in my lap.
Sofia sat across from me.
She had removed her wet coat. Beneath it, she wore a simple gray sweater. Without the gate, the cane, and the snow between us, she seemed less like a ghost from Victor’s past and more like a tired woman carrying years she did not know how to set down.
“You loved my mother,” I said.
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you contact her?”
“I did twice.”
“She never told me.”
“She returned both letters unopened.”
“That doesn’t sound like her.”
“She was afraid.”
“Of you?”
“Of what followed me.”
I watched the workmen loosen another section of plaster.
“Did you ever see her again?”
“Once.”
“When?”
“After you graduated from high school.”
My head turned.
“She met you?”
“In a diner in New Jersey.”
“Why?”
“She asked whether Father was still alive.”
“He was?”
“For another year.”
“What else did she ask?”
“Whether Annie had been found.”
I glanced toward Lily.
“And what did you tell her?”
“That I was still searching.”
Sofia lowered her gaze.
“Elena wanted to help, but she had built a life with you. She said she could not pull you back into a story that had already taken your father.”
“She never married.”
“No.”
“She worked three jobs.”
“I know.”
“She got sick and kept working because she was afraid we would lose our apartment.”
May you like
Sofia’s eyes filled.
“I know.”
