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“Mrs. Bishop?”
Her head came around and her eyes cleared. “You stole my cat.”
“What?”
“You little bitch, you stole my cat, as if everything else weren’t enough.”
Her heart dropped. Was that where Alex had found the kitten? At his mother’s? “Ma’am, I’m Sophie, not—”
“I know who you are!” she screeched. She pushed herself to her feet, the cat clutched tight to her bosom. “It wasn’t enough to co-opt my son, you took my cat, too? You’re a monster! You’ll be hearing from the police about this. I won’t put up with your vicious attacks anymore.”
“Mrs. Bishop,” she started, trying to gather her flying thoughts. “You broke into my house.”
“You’re a liar and a slut.” With that simple defense, Rose Bishop limped forward on her bare feet.
More than a little freaked out, Sophie moved sideways toward the kitchen, circling the path from the couch to the door. Rose watched her just as warily until she got to the door. She fumbled with it for a moment, and Sophie was faced with the bizarre decision of whether or not to unlock the door for her trespasser. But Rose finally realized the problem. She unlocked the door, then threw it open as if she were the one under threat.
A few seconds after she disappeared, Sophie tiptoed forward and carefully peeked her head out, half expecting the woman to be lurking in the corner of the porch. But the porch was clear and Alex’s mother was limping down the sidewalk toward her house.
Sophie was frozen, half crouched and clutching the doorjamb as she craned her neck to keep track of the woman’s progress. Was she delusional? Had she suffered some sort of spell?
“Shit,” Sophie breathed. “Holy shit.” What the hell had just happened?
She leaned farther out, but Mrs. Bishop was out of sight now, and Sophie felt suddenly guilty. What if she just kept walking and wandered out of town or into the street and got hurt?
When she stood and stepped outside, Sophie realized her hands were shaking. She laced her fingers together and held tight. “This is crazy,” she whispered to herself as she moved down to the walk and crept forward.
She caught sight of Mrs. Bishop just as the woman stepped into her house. The door closed behind her with a solid thunk that Sophie could hear from her house.
Now what?
She couldn’t just stay out here staring at the woman’s house. Someone would see her and add stalking to the epic tale of the Heyers versus the Bishops.
Sophie sprinted back into her house. She had no idea why she was the one feeling guilty. Rose was the criminal here.
Before she even got to her door, she heard her cell phone ringing and gave up any pretense of calm to sprint up the steps. “Hello?” she asked on a gasp. “Alex?”
The wind stole his voice for a moment, blowing into his phone and crackling into her ear.
“Alex?” she asked again.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I just... I didn’t know who to call.”
“What happened?”
“I came home and your mom was in my living room.”
“Are you fucking kidding me? I hope you called the police.”
“What? No. She wasn’t okay, Alex. She was confused.”
“She’s been confused for a long time.”
“I mean it! She thought I was my mom. She kept asking where her husband was.”
