had spent so much time protecting his world that I no longer recognized my own.”
She watched me carefully.
“Do you regret leaving?”
I thought about Dominic.
About the anniversary dinner.
About Vanessa wearing my necklace.
About the moment he hesitated instead of following me.
“No,” I answered.
“Do you regret marrying him?”
That question was harder.
I looked down at my hands.
“If I hadn’t married Dominic, I wouldn’t have had Sophie.”
My voice broke.
“And I wouldn’t trade the four years I had with her for anything.”
Charlotte reached across the table.
“Then perhaps you don’t have to regret the entire story to know the ending needed to change.”
I carried those words home.
That night, I opened the box containing Sophie’s drawings.
At the bottom was a picture I’d never seen before.
Three stick figures stood beneath a bright yellow sun.
