Chapter 95

• "It wasn't exactly planned. We've been navigating in the dark after you guys dropped into my life like that. Do you think I ever expected you to walk onto that island and see me? I didn't trust any of you or know what to do or how to be. All of this has been confusing and emotionally draining, and I was scared. I still don't know what happened with the car.... it was a major factor, and someone wanted me gone. You have to understand how I was... how I felt. I went through hell that day... from you and her to the mess I made of everything, crashing in the water and walking alone on the island for twenty-four hours before Glenda found me close to death. I was beyond mentally messed up and so out of my depth." Sophia clenches her fists as it all comes pouring out at him. Minor hysteria is building from within. Desperation mixed with resentment, and it's pouring out in verbal overflow.
• "I always relied on you... loved you, looked to you, felt safe with you, and suddenly you were the enemy, and I was the person you wanted to cut out and remove as though I was nothing more than poison.... You even called me that. You broke my heart and kept adding wounds upon wounds. What else was I supposed to think?" She starts to cry through her breathy words, her voice shaking and true emotions welling up and overspilling. "I was broken and wounded and suffering from shock and emotional devastation. I felt like everything that was my safety net, my life, had been ripped away, and I had nothing to go back for.... I intended to at some point, but then I heard on the radio how you found a body, and it cemented your guilt.... You killed me.... You erased me, and it hurt, Leon... it broke me all over again. I had only doubts and suspicion, and a destroyed, broken life in ruins behind me left."
• There's a pause between them as he absorbs her words and all of this. His posture is straightening, and he shifts on his feet, uneasily still with his back to her. She can see the way his shoulders heave, and it tells her his breathing is shallow and erratic while he rationalizes everything she's spilling out. Her words touching a nerve.