Sophia stood on the sidewalk with grocery bags biting into her fingers.
Johnson leaned against a car that looked too expensive for this neighborhood. The sight of him dragged the past up like mud—his cold voice ending the engagement, his signature on her firing, his stillness while Lily's feather duster struck her back.
For a split second, hatred surged so hard she almost stepped forward and dumped every bag at his feet.
Then she remembered Ava waiting upstairs, and the new job badge in her pocket—proof that her life had finally started moving again. She couldn't afford chaos. Not with her daughter. Not with her future.
Sophia swallowed the rage, tightened her grip, and angled toward the building as if he were only a stranger.
“Sophia," he said again, as if saying her name gave him ow
