Chapter 94 Chapter 94
Sophia’s POV
Dad held me while I cried in the garden, his arms strong and steady around me like they used to be when I was little.
“Your mother lives on,” he said quietly, stroking my hair. “In you. In me. In our memories. She’s not really gone, Sophia. Not as long as we remember her.”
“It doesn’t feel like enough,” I sobbed against his shoulder. “Memories aren’t enough. I want her back. I want to talk to her, hear her voice, ask her what to do.”
“I know, sweetheart,” he murmured. “I know.”
We stayed like that for a while longer, surrounded by Mom’s tulips, and I let myself be his little girl again. Let myself be vulnerable and broken instead of angry and defiant.
But then I heard footsteps approaching across the lawn.
I immediately pulled away from Dad, wiping at my tears furiously, trying to compose myself. I didn’t want whoever it was to see me like this.
It was Hailey, Of course it was.
She walked toward us with that cautious expression she always wore around me, like she was afraid I might explode at any moment.
“Hi,” she said softly when she reached us. Then she leaned in and kissed my father on the cheek, the gesture made my stomach turn.
“I’d like to stay out in the garden some more,” she said to him. “Get some fresh air. If that’s okay?”
“Of course,” Dad said, standing up and brushing dirt from his knees. “Stay as long as you like. Just don’t go beyond the walls.”
He looked at me. “Sophia, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I lied, forcing a smile onto my face. “Just needed a moment with Mom’s flowers.”
Dad nodded, seeming satisfied, and walked back toward the house.
Leaving me alone with her.
The silence that fell between us was thick. Heavy and oppressive. Like the Earth’s crust, pressing down with unbearable weight.
I stayed kneeling by the tulips, pretending to adjust the soil around them, hoping she’d just walk away to another part of the garden. But she didn’t.
She just stood there, watching me.
Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. I broke character, dropping the pretense of being fine.
“What are you doing out here?” I asked, my voice sharper than I intended. “This is my mother’s garden.”
“It’s a garden,” Hailey said, her tone dripping with sarcasm. “In the house your father owns. I’m pretty sure I’m allowed to be here.”
She started walking closer, moving deliberately toward the tulip section where I was kneeling.
“Don’t,” I said, standing up quickly. “Don’t touch the tulips. They were my mother’s favorite. They’re special.”
Hailey looked at me, then at the flowers, then back at me.
And then, with deliberate slowness, she reached down and plucked one of the tulips from the ground.
“No!” I shouted, but she was already picking another one. And another.
“Stop it!” I lunged toward her, trying to grab her hand, but she stepped back, holding the tulips out of my reach.
“These are just flowers, Sophia,” Hailey said, her voice cold now. All the usual nervousness and caution gone, replaced by something harder. “They’re pretty, but they’re just flowers.”
“They’re my mother’s!” I screamed, tears streaming down my face again. “Put them back!”
“I can’t put them back,” Hailey said, looking at the stems in her hand. “They’re already picked.”
She held my gaze, and I saw something in her eyes I’d never seen before maybe anger, I can’t name.
“You know what else is dying?” Hailey continued, her voice dropping lower. “Benita. She’s dying inside because the man she loved is dead. Because you brought a Morelli spy into our home and got him killed.”
“That wasn’t….” I started.
“You took the love of her life,” Hailey interrupted, her words cutting like knives. “You destroyed her. And you know what, Sophia? It’s now my mission to remind you that you’re still going to pay for Marco’s death. One way or another.”
I stared at her, shocked by the venom in her voice.
“You can hate me all you want,” Hailey continued, crushing the tulip petals in her fist. “You can blame me for your father moving on, for being here in your mother’s house, for existing. I don’t care anymore. But what you did to Marco? To Benita? That’s unforgivable.”
“I didn’t mean for him to die,” I whispered, my voice breaking.
“But he did die,” Hailey said flatly. “Because of your choices. Because of your jealousy and your schemes. And now Benita has to live with that loss for the rest of her life. Just like you have to live with losing your mother.”
The comparison hit me like a slap.
“Don’t you dare,” I hissed. “Don’t you dare compare what I’m going through to what happened to Marco. My mother died in an accident. Marco died because…..”
“Because of you,” Hailey finished. “Say it, Sophia. Marco died because of you.”
I couldn’t. The words stuck in my throat, choking me.
“I will make sure you pay,” Hailey said, her voice quiet but filled with promise. “I don’t know how yet. I don’t know when. But you will pay for what you did. That’s not a threat. It’s a fact.”
She scoffed and turned to leave
I stood there in shock, staring at Hailey’s retreating back as she stormed away from me, the nerve of her…. The absolute nerve.
She’d been so meek and timid since she arrived in our lives. Always apologizing, always trying to stay out of everyone’s way, always looking terrified.
But just now? That was a completely different person.
That was someone with a spine.
I looked down at the crushed tulips scattered at my feet, their beautiful petals destroyed, and felt rage burning through my chest.
How dare she? How dare she come into my mother’s garden, destroy my mother’s flowers, and threaten me?
I sat down heavily on the garden bench, glaring at the house where Hailey had disappeared, my hands clenched into fists.
But underneath the rage was something else. Something I didn’t want to acknowledge.
Because Hailey meant what she said. I could see it in her eyes. She was going to make me pay for Marco’s death.
And I deserved it.
I sat there in silence for what felt like hours, surrounded by the ruins of the tulips and my own spiraling thoughts.