Chapter 39
SOPHIA
I started showing up at Nora's house more, unannounced, telling myself it was just what a best friend did, dropping by with coffee or some excuse about needing her opinion on a dress, when really I was watching her the way you watch a locked door you used to have the key to.
The first few visits told me nothing. She was warm, easy, exactly the Nora I'd always known, laughing at the right places, pouring wine at the right times, letting me talk about myself the way she always had.
But I kept testing anyway, small things scattered through ordinary conversation, little traps I set without her ever seeming to notice they were traps at all.
"Remember when we snuck into that concert in college," I said one afternoon, sitting at her kitchen island while she made tea. "You c
