What if I believed the wrong person?
I grab the phone, and, after a moment’s hesitation, I call my father.
He answers after three rings. “Nico. We’re in the middle of dinner. Can you call back later?”
“No.” Through a gritted jaw, I add, “I need to talk to you. Now.”
My father sighs. “Fine. What’s going on? Is it something with your company?” He pauses. “Or did you decide to take me up on my offer?—”
“No, that’s not it,” I interrupt. “I wanted to ask you about Sofia.”
Several seconds pass. Then he asks in a clipped tone, “Why are you asking abouther?”
“I ran into her,” I reply vaguely.
I couldtell him she’s staying here. But I’m hesitant to. Not because I’m worried he’ll be angry—as a thirty-six-year-old man who served eight years active duty, I’m more than capable of dealing with his ire. But if he knows, he’ll focus on that instead of telling me what really happened back then.
“You ran into her? Where? When?”
“On a work trip,” I lie. “It was brief. But it got me thinking?—”
“Don’t think about her,” my father snaps. “You’ve been doing just fine without that… criminal in your life. I hope she wasn’t trying to worm her way back in. Asking for money, possibly working a con…”
“She didn’t ask for money. Nothing like that.”
“Then what? Why are we even talking about her?”
“It just got me thinking.” I lean forward and drum my fingers on the desk. “About everything that happened back then. Is it possible she didn’t do it?”
“Of course she did it. Did she tell you she didn’t? If she did, she’s lying. Women like that, they’ll lie about anything. Don’t listen to a word she said. She’s an opportunist. A liar. A criminal. And you’re better off without her.”
But I don’t think Sofia isan opportunist. If she was, she’d be living a much more extravagant life than she is now. And she hasn’t asked for anything from me.
She didn’t look like she was lying, either.
She looked upset. Hurt. Angry. But intentionally lying for some opportunistic reason? No.
I’m not going to get anything from my father, I decide. Not now.
But that doesn’t mean I can’t do some research on my own. It doesn’t mean I can’t look into evidence I never had reason to doubt before.
“She didn’t say anything about it,” I reply. “And she didn’t ask for money. Or offer up any business deals. I just said hi to her. That’s all. Seeing her just got me thinking.”
“Well, don’t think about her. She’s no good.” He stops. “Now. If that’s resolved, I’m going to finish dinner. Unless there was something else?”
“No.” I release a frustrated sigh. “Nothing else.”
But as soon as I end the call, I jump on my computer. And the first thing I do is hack into Sofia’s old records. They’re sealed, since she was only seventeen at the time, but that’s not a challenge for me. In under a minute, I’m looking at the arrest report, witness testimonies, and even Sofia’s old mug shot.
My gut twists at how scared she looked. Almost shell-shocked, like she couldn’t believe what was happening.
Could it have been a lie?
Not her lie, but my father’s?
Fuck.
What if Sofia was innocent all along?
