The Call Boy I Met in Paris – Episode 76
Three years passed in Paris. Susan recovered under the specialist’s care, and Sophie rebuilt a quieter life around work, hospital visits, and the small apartment Mrs. Lake had arranged under another name.
The distance did not make leaving easier. Justin refused to sign the divorce papers and continued asking anyone connected to Sophie where she had gone.
Kendall called one afternoon while Sophie and Susan sat outside a café. “Justin still will not sign. Are you planning to avoid him for the rest of your life?”
“He will not find us,” Sophie said, forcing confidence she no longer felt. “His mother placed us here. She knows how to keep the location hidden.”
“That does not answer my question.”
“There is no chance for us. It was a pipe dream.” Sophie looked toward Susan, healthy enough now to laugh with a waiter in French. The sacrifice had achieved what Mrs. Lake promised, even if it hollowed out every private moment.
Kendall sighed and told her to take care. They exchanged quiet admissions that they missed each other before ending the call.
Sophie remained at the table after Susan went inside. Paris had once represented escape and possibility. Now every familiar street reminded her of a man who had claimed to remember meeting her there years before she remembered him.
A wallet rested on the empty chair beside her. She picked it up, intending to ask the café staff whether anyone had reported it missing.
“Is that yours?” a man asked behind her.
Sophie froze. She knew the voice before she turned.
Justin stood a few feet away, older only in the gravity of his expression. Three years of searching, anger, and refusal lived in the way he looked at her.
He repeated the question, but his gaze remained on her face rather than the wallet. “Is that yours?”
“How did you find me?”
“Are you ignoring me,” he asked, coming closer, “or planning your escape again, wife?”
The title broke through every defense she had practiced. “Your mother—”
“It took three years, but I finally convinced her.” Justin stopped before her. “I told her that if I could not be with you, I would not be with anyone.”
Sophie gripped the wallet to keep her hands steady as the future she had buried stood waiting for an answer.