Chapter 3%
I didn’t pack much.!!
Just two changes of clothes, a worn leather journal, and the necklace Isabelle gave me on her wedding day, the day I stood beside her, never imagining I’d end up wearing her ring
The ruby bracelet my father gave me stayed in the drawer, still broken from the last time Sophie wanted me to feel her angers
I didn’t plan to leave forever.
Just a week. Maybe two. Enough time to create space. Let things settle. Let Sophie miss me enough to stop looking at me like a thief. LA Marcus feel the weight of what I carried every day without complaint.%
I had spent five years holding everything together with quiet sacrifices, smoothing the sharp edges, lowering my voice, swallowing disappointment like vitamins. But the truth was, this house had never healed.%
I zipped the bag and took one last look around the bedroom I never claimed. The walls were still Isabelle’s color. Her books still lined the shelves. Her wedding photo still sat on the dresser, half–hidden behind a lamp like a secret no one could throw away.%
I was never meant to replace her. I just forgot that I never stood a chance of being seen beside her ghost
Sophie was on the living room floor when I came down, hunched over homework she wasn’t doing. She didn’t look up
“I’m going to stay with Aunt May for a few days,” I said softly.
“Okay.“N
questions. No reaction.
“This isn’t goodbye. Just a break,”
She shrugged.
I waited, hoping for something.
But she just kept drawing circles on her paper.
So I reached for the doorknob.M
Then I heard the drawer behind me fly open.
t
I turned just as Sophie snatched a pencil from the coffee table. The sharp kind she used for math–mechanical, thin, mean.%
“Sophie,” I warned.
Her eyes were wild.!!
“You’re just leaving?” she shouted. “Just like that?”
“You haven’t wanted me here.”
“I never said to leave!” she yelled. “But you don’t try anymore! You just give up!”
“That’s not fair-“M
“You’re not fair!” she snapped. “You’re not real! You act like this is your life, like you belong, but you don’t!“%
And then her arm snapped forward.
The pencil sliced through the air toward my chest. I flinched hard–just enough that it missed hitting me square in the collarbone.%
Still, it struck. The plastic tip grazed my skin just beneath my neck. Sharp, hot pain, I looked down and saw a thin line of blood blooming through my shirt.M
We both froze.
Sophie’s chest heaved. My fingers hovered above the wound. It wasn’t deep. It wasn’t serious.
But it was enough.”
She didn’t say a word.”
And I didn’t have the energy to scream.”
I just looked at her, quietly, for too long. Then I picked up the pencil from the floor and placed it on the table.
“I’m leaving,” I said again, steady this time.
I reached for the door.”
That’s when it opened.”
Not from my hand but from outside.
Marcus stood there.
And beside him, a woman.”
Tall Glossy brown hair. Designer heels. Lipstick too bright for a house still mourning a ghost.”
She carried an overnight bag.
She smiled at Marcus like it meant something.
I froze.
He froze.
Sophie’s pencil rolled off the table with a clatter.”
The woman spoke first. “Oh,” she said lightly, her voice sugary. “You didn’t tell me you had company.”} Marcus opened his mouth.
But the words didn’t come fast enough.
“She’s not company,” I said coldly. “I’m his wife.”
The woman blinked, confused for a second and then her mouth curled into a half–smile, like it didn’t matter.
Marcus shifted uncomfortably.
And then, the twist I didn’t see coming.
Sophie ran across the room, straight to the woman.
Grabbing her hand.
Smiling.
“This is Ava,” she said quickly, almost breathless. “She’s nice. She said she liked my drawings.“}}
I stood frozen.}
Sophie turned her head, looking me dead in the eye.§
“Can I call her Mom?” she asked loudly.
Like a knife.
Like she knew exactly where to aim.
The air left my body all at once.
I understood, in that moment, exactly what she was doing.
She wanted me to fight.”
She wanted me to scream.
She wanted me to stay.
I was supposed to care enough to beg for her.
But I didn’t have it in me anymore.
Not after five years of trying to love someone who needed me to lose.
I set my suitcase down calmly, my heart breaking clean and sharp.
“You can call her whatever you want, Sophie,” I said.
Sophie’s smile faltered.
She didn’t expect me to say it.)
She blinked. Her hand slipped from Ava’s.
“Wait,” she said, voice wobbling.
I stepped toward the door.”
“Wait, Callie, please,” Sophie said louder, panic rising. “Please, don’t go!“>
Her voice cracked on the last word.
I paused. Just long enough to hear it break me then I kept walking.”
“Callie!” she sobbed, running after me. “Please! I didn’t mean it! I don’t want her! I want-”
The door slammed shut behind me, cutting off her voice mid–scream.
I stood on the porch, suitcase by my side, breathing hard.}
Inside, I could still hear her crying.”
But I didn’t turn around.
Not this time.”
