Sofia gasps. Even ten feet away, I can see tears spring to her eyes. After a few silent seconds, she asks quietly, “You think Iusedyou?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
She stares out the window. Her throat works. Then she turns back to look at me. “I never used you. Ever.”
“Then why?—”
Voice flat, she says, “This is a waste of time, Nico. It doesn’t matter what I say. You won’t believe me.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do.” She lifts her chin. “I could tell you what happened and you’d say it’s a lie.”
My jaw clenches. “How can you say that when you never even tried? You never even triedto explain. Never apologized. You just stole from my family, and when my dad agreed to drop the charges—which he didn’t have to do, I may add—you just took off.”
Fire sparks in Sofia’s eyes. “I couldn’t explain! I had to leave! I wasn’t allowed to talk to you!”
Shock jerks my head back. “What? Allowed? Did your mom?—”
“No!” Her voice pitches up. “Your dad! That was the condition of him dropping the charges. That I leave the city and never talk to you again. I couldn’t explain anything. Not that you cared, because you never came. You never thought about how scared I was, how confused, how hurt?—”
“What are you talking about? My father? And why were you confused?”
“I was terrified, Nico!” Sofia swipes at her tears. “I was accused of stealing thousands of dollars of jewelry. I was arrested! Do you know how that felt? Sitting in your room, studying, and your dad came charging in, screaming at me? Accusing me of taking jewelry I didn’t even know existed?”
“Youstolefrom us. That jewelry was passed down through my mother’s family. Ofcoursehe was angry.”
“I didn’t steal it!” Her voice rises to a shout. “I. Didn’t. Steal. Anything! He made it up!”
Anger bubbles up inside me. But rather than yelling back, I reply coldly, “You’re accusing my fatherof lying? That’s ironic, isn’t it?”
Full-on crying now, her voice shakes as she says, “It’s not ironic. It’s the truth. He framed me. I don’t know how. But he did. Your dad had me arrested because he wanted me out of your life. And it worked. I lost everything. School. Graduation. College.You.”
Something icy and poisonous slithers into my gut. But I force myself to ignore it. “My father wouldn’t have done that.”
“Hedid.”
“Stop lying.”
Sofia slams her hand on the counter. “I’m not! He did it. He framed me. He had me sent to jail. I sat in that detention center, scared out of my mind for five days because ofhim. And you know what I kept thinking while I was there? I kept thinking you would come. That there was no way you’d ever believe I was guilty. I wanted you?—”
Her voice cracks.
She covers her mouth with her hand. A broken sob escapes. “I waited. I waited for you to come. And you didn’t. I was all alone.”
Anger wars with the instinct to comfort her.
But what she’s saying.
My father isn’t a perfect person. But this? To frame a seventeen-year-old girl? And there was evidence. Plenty of it. My father wouldn’t do what she’s accusing him of. He wouldn’t.
“This was a bad idea,” she adds after a shuddering breath. “Coming here. I knew…” Turning on her heel, she makes a beeline out of the kitchen.
“Sofia,” I call after her. “We’re not done here.”
“Yes,” she retorts. “Weare.”
A few seconds later, a door slams.
