It kept moving regardless. And you either moved with it or you stood still and watched it go. And James Carter had never in his life been a man who stood still. He walked past Sophia toward the hallway. Come on, he said before Ava convinces Noah to join her book club.
Sophia laughed caught off guard by it, a real laugh, and followed him down the hall. The Monday after everything broke open, James drove Sophia to Sandra's office himself. She hadn't asked him to. She had, in fact, told him the night before that she could take the bus, that she had the route figured out, that he didn't need to rearrange his morning. He had listened to all of that and then said at 6:45 in the morning, "Keys already in his hand.
I'll start the truck." She had looked at him with the expression he was coming to recognize as her processing the specific experience of someone refusing to let her be alone in something. It was a look caught between gratitude and the instinct to push back. And he had learned that the best thing to do when she had that look was simply wait. She picked up her bag and followed him out.
Evelyn had come over to watch Noah and get Ava to school. When they came through the living room, his mother was on the floor with Noah doing something with a set of plastic rings. And she looked up at James and Sophia standing there ready to leave. And she said nothing. Just looked at them both with those quiet measuring eyes and gave one small nod the way she did when she had assessed a situation and arrived at a conclusion she was keeping to herself.
James said, "We'll be back by 10." His mother said, "I know how to work your coffee maker. Go." They went in the truck. They didn't talk for the first 10 minutes.
Not an uncomfortable silence. The kind of silence that has weight and content without needing words. The kind that two people arrive at when they have said enough important things recently that the quiet feels earned then Sophia said what if he shows up James kept his eyes on the road to Sandra's here to Charlotte what if he doesn't stop at texts then we deal with that he said James I'm serious so am I he glanced at her Sandra is going to file today once that motion goes in any contact he makes outside of legal channels becomes documentation for your case. Every move he makes wrong is a move that helps you. He returned his eyes to the road.
Men like David count on women being too scared and too isolated to fight back. You are neither of those things anymore. Sophia looked at the side of his face. You sound very certain. I am certain.
Why? He was quiet for a moment. Because I have watched you for the past month manage a job search and a legal situation and an 8-month-old and a house full of complicated people. And you have not broken once. Not once, he said it plainly without decoration.
Whatever David thinks he's dealing with, he hasn't seen what I've seen. Sophia looked out the passenger window. Don't make me cry in this truck, she said. Her voice was controlled but barely. Then don't, he said.