It’s the first positive thing between us since Sophie ended up in the hospital.
“She still thinks I should be arrested.”
“It’s one thing we agree on,” Duncan says.
And just like that, the car gets even chillier.
We continue down the hill at a speed better suited for eighty-year-old drivers. I see glimpses of the Atlantic Ocean through the trees, along with miles and miles of snow.
I wonder how long winter lasts here.
“I don’t know what else I can do to prove that it was an accident.” I try to smooth my sharp tone, because this mandoesn’tlike me. He may be the second most powerful man in the country, but he’s also Sophie’s father, and just because my relationship with my father is a lost cause, I don’t want to cause any unrest in Sophie’s. “I would never do anything to intentionally hurt Sophie. I don’t even remember seeing her in the street.”
“Because you were driving so fast.”
“I wasn’t, but even so, I race cars for a living. I can control a vehicle at high speeds.”
“And yet, you didn’t.”
I glance out the window. The sight of Sophie in the middle of the street, the moment before I jammed on the brakes… “I don’t remember seeing her because she wasn’t there,” I say slowly, playing the images back in my mind.
“Are you somehow trying to blame my daughter for your reckless behaviour?” Duncan’s voice is quiet, which is somehow worse than if he yelled.
“I’m notblaming her for anything. I’m going over it in my head and… she wasn’t there when I came around the corner. And then she was, like she—”
“Appeared out of nowhere like magic?” he asks icily.
“Stood up.”
I’ve wondered why there wasn’t the telltale thump of hitting something. IknowI didn’t hit Sophie; if I did, it wasn’t that hard. Not hard enough to cause her to break her toes.
What if she fell before I even got there? What if I didn’t see her because she was already on the ground? What if she hadn’t gotten to her feet—?
I would have driven over her, unable to see before it was too late.
It was almost already too late.
My insides turn colder than the outside of the car. What if that’s how it happened? Sophie said she doesn’t remember anything—
Or maybe she remembers all of it, and she’s playing a good game of acting like a victim for something I did.
Sophie wouldn’t…
I don’t even know Sophie, so I wouldn’t know what she would or wouldn’t do.
“It happened so suddenly,” I manage, trying to sort through the twists and turns of my thoughts. “I hate that she was hurt.”
“Don’t do it again.”
“I don’t plan on it.”
“Don’t spend time with her,” Duncan orders.
“I’m sorry?”
“Don’t spend time with my daughter. You don’t want to hurt her, and giving her a false sense of friendship—”
“Iamfriends with her.”
