“What did she tell you?”
Alex took a deep breath.
“That she hated you from day one, that she thought you unworthy of me, that I was her only son, and that she couldn’t bear it if another woman took me away from her. And that’s why she decided to poison you. She said she didn’t want to kill you, she just wanted to make you sick.”
“Alex, thallium is deadly. If I had worn this pendant for a few more months…”
“I know”.
His voice broke.
“I know. And I… Oh, Sophia, what an idiot I was. I didn’t believe you. I stood up for her when I should have stood up for you.”
He covered his face with his hands.
“I almost lost you because of my own blindness.”
Sophia looked at him – broken, defeated.
Part of her wanted to go to him, hug him, comfort him.
Together.
That word – together – became their mantra in the following months.
They attended couples therapy together to deal with the mess of old wounds.
Together they planned a future without their mother-in-law’s shadow.
Together they learned to trust each other again.
Richard visited them sometimes.
He would bring in old jewelry books and tell stories from his time as an expert.
He and Sophia became friends.
A unique friendship between a young woman and a retired forensic expert, but a true one.
“So how did you find me?” she asked him one day.
“On the subway,” Richard smiled.
“I wasn’t looking for you. It was a coincidence. I was on my way to work. I saw you pale, exhausted, and with a pendant around your neck. You know, when you work with poisoning for years, you start to notice things that others don’t. The color of your face, your weakness—everything pointed to chronic poisoning. And then I looked at the pendant and saw that line.”
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