“Did you answer?” I asked.
“I told him what he’d done was cruel. He accused me of trying to make him the villain.”
“Why didn’t you call me then?”
Sophie looked ashamed.
“I should have. But almost two years had passed. I didn’t know whether you’d believe me. And I was still afraid of what Daniel might do if he found out.”
I wished she’d contacted me.
But after everything she’d described, I understood why reaching out had felt impossible.
“Then you heard about the accident,” I said.
She nodded.
“A mutual friend called yesterday.”
Her voice broke.
“I cried, Linda. Despite everything, I loved him once. We spent six years together. There were good memories too.”
“Why come today?”
“Because you’re grieving someone you believe was abandoned without explanation. You deserved to know what happened.”
She hesitated.
“And because I wanted to see you. I never stopped wanting that.”
