ian

ere it was, crying sounds coming from down the hall where it shoul

this wasn't possible. Sophia was dead and no one had a key to that room except me and Charlott

the sound vibrating through it, and I knew that sound. I'd heard it too many times in the

I could stop it even though I knew

ing did

e I was not meant to shake or get scared, but something about this was

pt

there, louder now, and I followed it to the nightstan

l playin

she'd left me, the one from the night she d

t keep pretending I'm fine when I'm not, and I know you don't love me, I know you never will

dn't listen to the rest, couldn't hear her saying she was do

and that someone had to

p, scrolling through today's footage starting fr

went into the room, stayed for maybe ten minutes,

answered on the third ring sounding annoye

n Sophia's room

igh. "I was wonderin

ve a sp

to me years a

the right to go in th

rian, another contract bride who looks exactly like Sophia, and you th

our business." I said t

're going to ki

closed my eyes, took a breath. "W

did

oom and now her phone is playing her last

"I went in there to look for something but I didn't

battery died two years

cemail and honestly it was one of the most horrible things I've

she said."

esn't seem like you le

ere to find?" I asked

bly pacing because she always paced when she was upset. "Sophia left

tened. "What

envelope says 'To be given to Adrian's n

e it to he

ressed to her." Ch

elp anything, it's just going to make things wo

ow what she's getting into.

have a contract, ever

oks like Sophia? Does she know what happened

in love with me." I said,

arlotte took a breath. "I'm giving Elena that letter tomorrow at noo

e, don't

d I don't answer to you." Her voice got harder. "Sophia deserves to have

I replied to her beca

pain you caused and refused to a

or that because she was r

r before Elena does because Sophia was a lot angrier than you think and a lot sm

hung

I couldn't deal with them, couldn't face what I'd done, and now Charlotte was go

top drawer and there it was, a blue envel

e marries nex

multiple pages probably, and the seal was still i

row, but my hands were shaking and I couldn't make myself break that s

ed the drawer and left the roo

er Sophia had written and then she'd leave, would tear up our contract and

a's phone and thinking about her last voicemail and the letter waitin

epeat itself and I had