Nine Choices, One Final Goodbye

sia

?" Rico's voice followed me o

"Oh, don't worry about her, Ric. She's just being dram

rse they didn't. He was already her

he first time in four years, the crushing weig

dges of the signed papers a soli

ed and Sofia had been taken wherever she wanted to

chin resting on my shoulder. It was a familia

felt lik

o my hair. "Fia was a mess. She f

n't a

ghtening. "Are you sti

escaped my lips. "Mad?

sion. He was so used to my tears, my quiet pleas. He didn't

m, at the life I was about to leave behin

we had with Sofia. It's over now. The ni

game he'd finally got

my voice fla

cument from my purse a

s face change. The confusion morphed into disbelief, then

oke, right?" he demanded,

were so eager to please her, you didn'

line, at his own careless

. "But you let her.

e's been through a lot." "She doesn't mean it that way."* He had an endless s

ary, over my family, over my health, over my work. He chose her

de. It was one of the small, domestic rituals

e slept in th

suitcases. Everything else in this house felt like it belo

und it. A single, gaudy diamond earring. Sofia's. She was al

or our second anniversary. It had felt heavy then, a

ce of furniture, every painting on the

ble. This was mine. I had built it with my own two hands, my own eye for t

firm that connected me to Moretti Legacy Holdings, R

a journalist, the kind who always knew things. *You should come

ing that crowd of smiling vipers made my ski

circle of admirers hanging on her every word. She l

ofia was saying, her voice pitched for maximum drama. "He said he couldn't be

llo, sighed dreamily. "He's so dev

a small, pitying smile. "Oh, A

ing. "Rico was so worried about you. He told me he feel