Chapter 7

I raised an eyebrow, wondering what new drama this was.

"Jessica, what are you doing at my house?"

She scrambled up and grabbed my hand, rubbing her icy fingers against my palm.

"Aren't you cold? It's so cold today, you should have worn more! Don't you know it hurts me to see you like this?"

My stomach churned. The hot pot I'd just enjoyed threatened to make a reappearance. I snatched my hand back.

"We're divorced, Jessica. This is my house. You're trespassing."

She had been sitting on my front steps, huddled in a thin coat, her lips blue from the cold. Part of me wondered how long she'd been waiting. The rest of me didn't care.

"I know we're divorced," she said, her voice small. "But I needed to see you. I've had time to think, Jacob. I was wrong."

"Congratulations on the epiphany. Now leave."

I stepped past her and unlocked the front door. She followed me inside before I could stop her.

"Please, just five minutes. That's all I'm asking."

I turned to face her in the hallway. The house was warm, and the contrast with the cold outside made her shiver violently. Against every instinct, I grabbed a blanket from the couch and tossed it at her.

"Five minutes. Then you leave."

She wrapped the blanket around herself and sat on the edge of the sofa — the same sofa where I'd spent countless nights sleeping alone, worrying about her.

"Kevin and I are done," she said.

"I don't care."

"He used me, Jacob. The moment things got hard, he bailed. After the divorce, I went to stay with him. I had nowhere else to go. He let me stay for a week, then told me I was 'bringing too much negativity into his space.'"

She laughed bitterly. "His space. After everything I gave up for him."

I leaned against the kitchen counter and crossed my arms. "You gave up a husband who loved you. That's what you gave up."

"I know." Her voice broke. "I know that now."

"Is that why you're here? Because Kevin kicked you out and you need a place to stay?"

The flash of guilt on her face told me everything.

"Jessica."

"It's just temporary! A few days, maybe a week, until I find an apartment —"

"No."

"Jacob, please —"

"You faked your death. You humiliated me in front of everyone I know. You slept with another man in our bed. And now you want to sleep in that same bed because your boyfriend threw you out?"

She flinched at each point like I was striking her.

"I have nowhere to go," she whispered. "My friends won't talk to me after the funeral. My family says I brought this on myself. Even my own mother told me not to come home."

For a fraction of a second, I felt something. Not sympathy, exactly. More like the ghost of the man I used to be — the one who would have dropped everything to help her.

But that man was dead. She'd killed him.

"There are hotels," I said. "Shelters. Resources. I'm not one of them."

The front door opened behind us. Sophia walked in carrying grocery bags, freezing when she saw Jessica on the couch.

"Oh," Sophia said coolly. "Is this a bad time?"

Jessica's eyes darted between Sophia and me. The grocery bags. The casual way Sophia walked into my house like she belonged there.

"You're sleeping with my aunt?" Jessica's voice was pure venom.

"I'm not sleeping with anyone. Sophia's a friend."

"A friend who has a key to your house?"

Sophia set the groceries on the counter and turned to Jessica with a polite, devastating smile. "I don't have a key. The door was unlocked because you were sitting outside like a stray cat and he probably forgot to lock it."

Jessica stood up, the blanket falling from her shoulders. "This is unbelievable. My own aunt, moving in on my ex-husband before the ink on the divorce papers is even dry."

"First," Sophia said, holding up a finger, "I'm your aunt by a marriage that ended when my husband died. We share no blood. Second, Jacob and I are friends. Third, and most importantly, you lost the right to have opinions about his life when you faked your death and slept with Kevin in this house."

Jessica's mouth opened and closed. She looked at me, desperate. "Jacob, you can't seriously be friends with her. She's manipulating you. She's always been jealous of me."

I walked to the front door and held it open. Cold air rushed in.

"Your five minutes are up."

Jessica stared at me, then at Sophia, then back at me. Something in her expression shifted — from desperation to fury.

"You'll regret this," she said quietly. "Both of you."

She walked out into the cold without the blanket. I closed the door behind her.

Sophia watched from the window as Jessica's figure disappeared down the street.

"She'll be back," Sophia said.

"I know."

"You okay?"

I thought about it honestly. "Yeah. Actually, yeah. I am."

Sophia began unpacking the groceries. "Good. Now come help me cook. I bought enough food for three, but it seems our uninvited guest won't be staying."

I walked over and started putting vegetables away. It felt oddly domestic, oddly right.

"Sophia?"

"Hmm?"

"Thank you. For showing up when you did."

She bumped her shoulder against mine. "I told you I'd check on you. I plan everything, remember?"