Two Lovers Entwined

11. Baltimore.

Sophia woke up the next morning in Liam’s bed, the sunlight streaming through the curtains. Her head throbbed, the remnants of last night’s emotions weighing heavily on her. She turned over, expecting to see Liam beside her, but the bed was empty.

For a moment, she lay there, staring at the ceiling, the events of the past few days crashing over her like a tidal wave. Everything felt broken—her relationship with Noah, the fragile connection she had with Liam, and most of all, her sense of self.

She checked her phone, half-expecting a message from Liam, but instead, she found a voicemail from her father.

"Sophia, when are you coming home? We miss you here. I know things have been tough, but Baltimore’s always going to be your home. Don’t forget that."

Tears filled her eyes as she listened to his words. She had made up her mind. It was time to go home.

With a heavy heart, Sophia got dressed, her decision final. New York had taken too much from her, and it was time to let it go.

But even as she packed her things, a part of her couldn’t shake the feeling that leaving Liam behind was another loss she wasn’t quite ready to face.

Two weeks had passed, and the quiet of Baltimore seemed to sink into Sophia’s bones. She sat across from her father at the terrace, sipping her coffee as they overlooked the vast estate that had always been her sanctuary. The house—no, the mansion—sprawled out like a grand estate from another time, its stone walls climbing with ivy, manicured gardens extending in every direction. The view was majestic, serene, but it did little to ease the storm inside her.

Her father sat with his usual quiet presence, reading the morning paper. He was a man of few words, a lawyer who kept his emotions locked away, except for the rare moments when they seeped through in his gaze. Sophia had never wanted for anything growing up, except for her mother—gone too soon. Her father had never remarried, and the void left by her mother had become a permanent fixture in their lives. No siblings, no stepmother, just the two of them in this enormous, echoing house.

The silence between them was comfortable, but not intimate. Her father lived in his thoughts, and Sophia had grown accustomed to the solitude of their relationship. She loved him deeply, but they both knew that there were things they never spoke about. Her mother’s absence was one of them.

“Do you need anything for the garden?” her father asked quietly, not looking up from his paper.

“No, Dad. I’m fine,” Sophia replied, managing a small smile. She finished her coffee and stood, feeling the need to escape the weight of the memories lingering in the house.

She wandered into the garden, a sanctuary within the sanctuary. The morning light filtered through the trees as she moved through the familiar paths, watering the flowers that her mother had once planted. The roses, vibrant and full of life, reminded her of the woman she had lost. This garden had always been a place of connection to her mother, a way to keep her close even after all these years.

As Sophia watered the plants, her phone buzzed in her pocket, startling her out of her thoughts. She glanced at the screen. It was Liam again—one of the many calls she had been ignoring. For two weeks, he had tried to reach out, to explain, to fix what had been broken. She had silenced every call, but something about this one made her hesitate.

She swiped to answer, bringing the phone to her ear.

“Sophia,” Liam’s voice came through the line, relieved yet cautious. “I didn’t think you’d answer.”

“I almost didn’t,” she replied, her voice colder than she intended.

There was a pause, and she could hear the uncertainty in his breath. “I’m going to be in Baltimore next week. I have some work to do… but I want to see you before then. Can we meet?”

Sophia leaned against the garden wall, her gaze drifting over the flowers, but her mind was far from the peace of the garden. "I don’t know, Liam. Things are... different now."

“I know," he said, his voice soft but insistent. "But I can’t just leave things like this. I want to talk. And there’s something else… one of my paintings was bought. For a lot of money. By someone in Baltimore. I didn’t think it was a coincidence.”

Sophia’s brows furrowed. "Someone in Baltimore?"

"Yeah," Liam continued, his voice laced with curiosity. "A private buyer, paid millions. I’ve been trying to figure out who it is. I have a feeling… it might be someone connected to you."

The pit in her stomach deepened, but she couldn't tell if it was because of Liam or the strange coincidence. “Fine,” she said, her voice measured. “We can meet.”

Inside she felt some remorse, perhaps just the fact that she had rejected Liam to protect herself from herself. She asked herself over and over again why she had made the decision to cheat on Noah. It wasn't fair, he also helped her in many things. He had helped her to be a better person, in all her common sense, but she also accepted that there were things that were already broken. Everything was routine, life had become repetitive. She in the gallery, he in his executive affairs. Nothing coincided in them anymore. Liam had been the proof of temptation, but she blamed herself for having touched him before. She should have told Noah what was happening to her, but all that excitement about a new house had clouded her mind. Noah closed himself off, worse than his father. They no longer argued, there was no passion in bed, there was nothing anymore.

Noah covered expensive dinners, expensive trips, expensive things. And for Sophia, who had grown up surrounded by that, it didn't satisfy her. She understood that she needed to be alive, that maybe Liam made her feel alive in some way. That unnecessary, treacherous passion drove her crazy just thinking that she wanted to repeat it over and over again, kiss his mouth. She liked that temptation, she liked Liam, but she felt guilty for having deceived herself and Noah.

She lied saying that everything was fine.

But she wanted to be with Liam, she wanted to know him beyond his paintings. Get to know his family, his past, his fears and worries.

She wanted to see that part of Liam that he couldn't hide behind his wonderful paintings. That day at the gallery, when he arrived with great enthusiasm, he saw something in Sophia that he had never been able to see in another girl. Blonde hair, white skin, brown eyes more bitter than pure chocolate. And he, just a man with African-American features, why would a girl like her like him?

He was also afraid of that, but he wasn't going to stop until he got a bit of that caffeinated look that brightened his day.

He felt like he belonged to her. He had never met anyone like Sophia.