Sophie's Choice
Chapter 14 - Sophie's Choice
A regional hospitality company offered Sophie a position supervising guest services at a new property outside Chicago. The pay was better; benefits were included; and she would have room to grow. She wanted the job. She also dreaded moving away just as Elena returned.
"Take it," Elena said when Sophie told her.
"I only just got you back."
"And I'm not disappearing again. We can visit each other. We can call. We can do the ordinary sister things we missed."
Sophie smiled. "Like fighting over holiday dinner?"
"Especially that."
Luca congratulated Sophie without offering to outbid the new employer. He had learned that gratitude could become another kind of control when it came attached to money.
At a small dinner hosted by Teresa, Sophie explained her plans to the group. Gabriel sat beside Elena, cheerfully dropping pieces of bread onto his tray. Luca brought a cake from a neighborhood bakery because Sophie had once mentioned that she'd never had a proper graduation celebration after leaving college to support her family.
A card beside the cake read: *For every door you open next.*
Sophie stared at it. "This is too much."
"It's cake," Elena said, grinning. "You're allowed."
Sophie laughed, then cried, then laughed again.
Later she stood on the porch with Luca.
"You did something right," she told him.
"Only one thing?"
"Don't get ambitious."
May you like
He smiled. "I'll take it."
They watched Elena carry Gabriel inside. For a moment, none of them were thinking about investigations or threats. They were simply people with a future again.
