Julian texted at half past two on Sunday afternoon, while Sophie was still sitting at the kitchen table with her second cup of tea gone cold and her mother's financial papers burning a hole in her thoughts from two rooms away.
The jeweler called. The wedding bands need a final check before they're engraved. I told them I'd come in tomorrow morning. You should probably be there.
Sophie stared at the message for a long moment. You should probably be there was doing a lot of work in that sentence. It meant Charlotte should be there. It meant Sophie, playing Charlotte, needed to stand in a jeweler's shop and confirm ring engravings for a wedding that should have belonged to her sister.
She typed back: What time.
Ten. I'll come by for you at half nine.
She put the phone face down on the ta
