Lena's POV
Sophie left on Saturday morning.
She hugged me at the taxi and held on long enough to say everything she wasn't going to say out loud. When she pulled back her eyes were clear but close.
"Call me," she said.
"I always call you."
"Call me sooner than you think you need to." She picked up her bag. "And Lena — stop waiting for the decision to feel clean. It won't. Just make it anyway."
She got in the taxi and was gone.
I stood on the pavement for a moment. The city moved around me the way it always did — indifferent, continuous, not waiting for anyone to finish thinking.
I walked back inside.
I had five days left. Adrian had been discharged the day before. The hospital felt different without him in it, which I noted and didn't examine too carefully. I had three post-operat
