Chapter 5
Rain and Remembrance
London in November was a different kind of grey from New York. Softer, somehow. More forgiving.
Ethan had a conference in the city and Sophia, on an impulse she didn't fully examine, had asked to come. He hadn't questioned it. He'd simply booked her a seat beside his on the flight.
They walked along the South Bank on a Wednesday afternoon, the Thames dark and silver beneath a low sky, and Sophia found herself telling him things she hadn't said aloud to anyone.
About how she and Daniel had met in a bookshop on Charing Cross Road. About how she'd believed, genuinely believed, that she had found the person she was supposed to spend her life with. About how the leaving had felt not just like heartbreak but like the floor had fallen out from under reality itself.
Ethan listened without interrupting. He was good at that — being still while she was in motion.
When she finished, they walked in silence for a while. Then he said, quietly, "He missed out."
She laughed despite herself. "That's very loyal of you."
"It's true." He glanced at her sideways. "You're not easy to know, Sophia. But you're worth knowing."
She looked at him. Really looked at him, perhaps for the first time.
Something shifted, slow as a tide, in the water behind her ribs.