I believed that after surviving humiliating layoffs, hospital waiting rooms and the slow erosion of a long marriage, nothing could truly throw me off balance.
And yet, a whisper in the back seat was enough to make my world lose its gravity.
I had left Margaret at the airport just minutes ago, watching her disappear behind the automatic doors without looking back even once.
That detail, which at another time would have been just a slight discomfort, began to grow inside me like a silent crack.
But that’s what stopped me.
It was Sophie.