Chapter 3
Sophie
The balcony door clicked shut and the low hum of the city enveloped me.
“Is she asleep?” Violet asked, causing me to chuckle.
“She’s an adult,” I pointed out. “Hardly someone who needs tucking in.”
She glanced over her shoulder, resting her elbows on the iron railing. “And yet you keep checking on her.”
I sighed, taking the spot next to her. “After everything that happened to her… yes, I worry.”
“She’s a strong kid.”
I nodded, because that didn’t release me from the fact that I was responsible for her distress. But Violet didn’t know that, and I wasn’t ready to share it with anyone.
We stood in silence, gazing out at the skyline where the Washington Monument stood proud.
“It’s been a while since I stayed up past midnight,” she said. “It’s like the city lets out a relieved breath, grateful that it gets to exist another day.”
A breeze swept through and we both shuddered. She straightened and buttoned her jacket to her chin while I pulled my shawl tighter around me.
“Aren’t you freezing without a jacket?” she questioned.
“I’ll get you a sweater like this next Christmas,” I teased. “Then you’ll understand.”
Another shudder rolled through. “Don’t you dare. Poor little baby alpacas.”
I let out an incredulous breath.
“They shave them, Violet. It’s humane! Do you want to be shaved?” she bit back.
I sighed. “I guess not. Okay, no alpaca sweater for you.”
“Thank you,” she muttered, then stuck her tongue out at me.
I smiled. “You always were more compassionate than me. No wonder you ended up in your field.”
She provided therapy to traumatized people—her specialty being sociopaths and psychopaths, and she’d seen more than her fair share of criminals.
“I wish it was simply because of my compassion for living things.” She laughed quietly. “But we both know there’s more to it.”
I nodded somberly, understanding her now more than ever.
“Sometimes I really wish someone would have beaten some sense into your parents.” I bit my cheek, unsure how to approach the topic. I decided to just come out with it. “To blame you for your sister’s kidnapping…?”
She shrugged.
“Their blame is nothing next to my own self-guilt,” she said. “They didn’t know how to deal with it either.”
The air smelled faintly of snow and somewhere in the distance, a siren wound down, then vanished.
I lifted my head up to the sky, unsure—as I’d been many times before—how to make Violet see that she couldn’t have prevented her sister’s kidnapping even if she’d spent every night of her life sleeping next to her in the bed. But that wasn’t how these things went.
Someone snatched her younger sister directly out of her parents’ home, leaving no trace. Violet’s parents were out to dinner that night, and Violet wasn’t home. It was arguably the only reason she wasn’t also taken.
“So, Croatia, huh?” she said after a long stretch of silence. “Are you sure this is the best thing?”
“You could come with me?” I suggested.
“I might meet you there.”
“Really?” I asked in surprise.
“I got a…” She seemed to struggle to find the word while I waited patiently. “A job, I guess.”
My eyebrows shot up. “In Croatia?”
She shook her head. “No, in Greece.”
I stiffened. “Greece?”
Her eyes met mine. “Yes.”
“And you’re going to take it?” I asked incredulously, although a part of me wasn’t surprised at this turn of events. I always believed that one day Violet’s path would lead her back to her Greek god. I just couldn’t figure out if it was smart or not.
“I am.” Then she continued quickly. “Before you point out that I’m playing with fire, I’m well aware, but I just can’t resist. I made so many mistakes, and I need to confirm that my decision—that he—wasn’t one of them.”
Her voice cracked and she blinked, looking away at the city lights in the distance.
“You were twenty-one,” I pointed out. “What the hell did we know at that age?”
She waved her hand. “Back to the original point. We can meet up in Croatia. Or you can come to Greece.”
“Sounds like a plan, but only if you promise me one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“Don’t look to the past to find a way to move on. The answers are in the future.” I let out a bitter laugh. “Trust me, I know.”
“Sophie Baldwin, are you turning into a therapist?”
I huffed a laugh. “No, that’s your area of expertise. I just don’t want you to repeat my mistake.”
“It’s a lesson learned, not a mistake.”
I let out an exasperated breath. “Whatever you say.”
She leaned back on the rail and looked out into the city. “Gosh, if we only knew what life had in store for us then.”
She scoffed. “We’d probably have run and never looked back.”
“Do you remember the first year of college?” I asked, glancing at her profile. “When we were absolutely convinced we’d have everything figured out by thirty?”
Violet groaned. “We were never more wrong.” Violet tapped the railing, her fingernails echoing between us. She was anxious, I realized. “Turns out life doesn’t care about bullet points.”
I blew a raspberry. “I thought I’d be fearless and own every room I walked into.”
The wind lifted a strand of my hair, brushing it across my cheek.
“You kind of do,” Violet pointed out. “You’re a freaking badass in those delivery rooms.”
“So are you,” I replied. “Just think of how much you’ve helped. Maybe not in delivery rooms, but people have walked out your door stronger than when they entered through it.”
Violet let out a soft breath. “If you say so.”
I sighed. “I miss those days, or rather that feeling of invincibility.”
Violet considered my words, her head tilted slightly while the wind kicked up around us.
“I miss who I thought I was going to be,” she said finally. “It’s funny though…”
“What is?” I asked.
“We learned so much about bodies and psyches, but nothing about how to live with the choices we make.”
I bumped my shoulder lightly against hers. “We can still figure it out.”
Those might’ve been the most positive words and thoughts I’d had in a long time, but funny enough, at this moment, I meant them. For her sake and my own.
I closed my eyes for a second, letting our shared memories fill the space where expectations used to be.