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The door to David’s room closed, too, quietly for once. She was alone and she couldn’t do anything to make this better for either of them. So she took off her heels, tied on an apron, and grabbed the vacuum. After she’d cleaned the living room, she headed for the kitchen. When her phone rang again, she saw Lauren’s name but didn’t answer.
In all the chaos, Sophie had forgotten to go back to work. Sick and ashamed, she called the front desk and left a message that she wouldn’t be back. She didn’t give a reason. They probably all knew why by now. She was in danger of being fired, but probably not because she’d left work. She’d embarrassed the library in front of the trust, one of their biggest new supporters in the community. It was bad.
She couldn’t face anyone today, not even Lauren. But the guilt of ignoring her would eat her alive, so Sophie quickly texted that she was okay and would be in touch later. Then she turned off her phone, washed her hands and opened a jar of stewed tomatoes to start spaghetti. She’d make dinner and show her family that everything was okay. Everything would be fine.
But she’d been pulling this same trick since she was five years old, and she was beginning to suspect it had never worked at all.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“THAT WAS THE most singularly fucked-up thing I’ve ever seen,” Alex growled, trying his best to keep from shouting. He paced through his mother’s living room, or tried to, but her stacks of insanity blocked his way at every turn. This house was a goddamn diorama of his ruined childhood.
His mother wept in the corner, but she wasn’t grieving or ashamed, she was outraged.
“That redheaded little bitch!” she yelled.
Alex closed his eyes and breathed.
“Mom,” Shane said calmly, though Alex could hear the frustration that edged the word. “When was the last time you saw your doctor? I just talked to Manny and he says you haven’t called for a cab ride in at least three weeks.”
“I don’t need therapy!” she wailed. “I need that woman out of my life!”
“You know how important therapy is right now. You were finally starting to get past this. You—” A loud ring cut him off. Shane pulled his cell phone from his pocket and stepped outside.
Alex wished Merry hadn’t needed to stay behind to help clean up that mess. He didn’t want to be alone with his mom. He was afraid of what he’d say to her.
“Alex,” she said, her voice suddenly a whispe
r. “Alex, you were going to say something about your father. I’m so proud of you, baby. So proud. And then that woman had to go and ruin it.”
“You ruined it,” he countered. “She was just standing there.”
“Well, why do you think she was there? To help?”
He didn’t know why she’d been there, actually. Or why she’d been with her brother, who had just filed a lawsuit against Alex’s family, after all.
All he knew was that he’d been up there, trying not to see the crowd, trying to stop his hands from shaking, and he’d meant to tell that story. Of his dad and the lawn mower. Alex had no idea why he’d decided to share it, but he had. And then he’d looked up and seen her.
The worst part was that she’d looked so beautiful and frail and he’d wanted to go to her, even as the horror she’d brought had swelled around him.
“You men are all the same,” his mom muttered. “Blind to everything if there’s an easy piece of tail around.”
He shook his head in disgust.
“Did you think she was in love with you? Because she looked at you with those pretty eyes and fluttered her lashes? You hardly knew her! She was trying to hurt me.”
His mom had always loved to paint herself as the victim. The ultimate victim of everything. A cheating husband, callous in-laws, vicious neighbors, money-hungry banks and power companies and landlords. Rose Bishop had always been a victim of the whole cruel world. It came as no surprise that Sophie Heyer was out to get her, as well.
Alex followed his brother out the back door, not to listen in, but just to get out.
Sophie hadn’t slept with him to hurt his mom. That was completely absurd. He knew why she’d slept with him: because there was an insane chemistry between them. It’d been there since the moment he’d laid eyes on her. Hell, maybe it ran in the family. Thank God his dad and her mom had never decided to get married and set up house. That would’ve made for some damn awkward teenage years.
No, there was no way in hell Sophie had slept with him to enact some scheme of revenge. But why had she come to the dedication?
She hadn’t said she was coming. In fact, she’d made it pretty clear that she wasn’t. Why would she?
“Yeah,” he muttered. “Why would she?”
He checked his phone to see if there were messages. In the rush to calm his mother down and get her out of there, Alex hadn’t had time to check his phone, and when he saw there’d been no calls, he realized he was shocked. He’d been expecting her to call, to apologize, to explain. She hadn’t.
