Page 55 of Wired Fear

A comfortable silence stretched between them. Alika shut his eyes, feeling the warm breeze, listening to the rattle of the coconut palm fronds, the shush of the wind in the bamboo landscaping around the pool. His mom and grandma were going to go apeshit with excitement. They wouldn’t care that he and Sophie weren’t together as long as everyone was getting along and the baby was healthy. “I want you and Jake to work things out. Tell Jake that from me, will you?”

“I wish I didn’t have to tell him this news,” Sophie whispered. “I don’t know how he’s going to take it.”

“I want you to be happy, but if Jake can’t see how lucky he is, then we’re better off without him.”

“I’m happy about the baby, regardless,” Sophie said.

“Me too. Let’s do this. Let’s figure out how to be parents.”

Chapter Forty-One

After the phone call to Alika, Sophie sent Jake a brief text message.“We need to talk. Call me ASAP.”

She had to deliver the news about the baby’s parentage in person—and she had to tell Jake what she should have told him a while ago: somewhere along the way, she’d fallen in love with him.

She missed him. Wanted to be with him.

And she hoped like hell he hadn’t already moved on with the pretty, smart, unencumbered Felicia.

Sophie looked around the park as she slid her phone into her pocket. Old men and young children were fishing off the jetty. Mynah birds hopped on the smooth grass, and palm trees swished overhead. The dogs had curled up, snuggled against each other, tired of waiting for her to get off the phone. She stood up and tweaked their leashes. “Let’s go.”

Sophie walked along the curving concrete pathway this time, too full from the large breakfast for running. She tipped her face back, enjoying the sunshine.

Relief that she and Alika were in accord filled her with well-being. It was so sweet that he’d proposed for the baby’s sake; he was that kind of man, and his excitement about the baby was a huge load off her shoulders. Whatever happened with Jake, between Connor and Alika, she’d have all the support she’d need in the coming months.

What was Connor going to think of this latest development?

Sophie paused, leaning against a palm tree, and texted him.“Got the results back from the clinic. Alika is the baby’s father. I talked with him via phone and he is happy about it and plans to be involved.”She paused, nibbling on her lip.“We both agree we are not getting together romantically. But I am going to try to reconcile with Jake.”Again, she paused, imagining Connor’s face as he read the messages, the blow to hopes he’d never verbalized.“I appreciate all you’ve done, and I hope our friendship will continue, unchanged.”

That certainly put it out there, and it was a measure of how much things had improved between them that she hated to hurt Connor like this—but it was better just to tell him. The pregnancy already took most of her internal and external energy.

She slid her phone back into her pocket and this time moved into a gentle jog, the dogs on either side of her.

Sophie reached the edge of the park and the busy thoroughfare lined with Hilo’s downtown shops. She crossed that major artery and continued along it toward her apartment building, suddenly exhausted from all the emotion and the heavy meal. Her body was shutting down, telling her it needed a nap.

Things were so much different in her body now. The voice of the depression was a muted, distant whisper, while the little one inside clamored for its needs to be met.

She’d almost reached her apartment building, could even see its nearby cool cinderblock cube under the banyan tree, when a female voice called her name. “Sophie Ang.”

Sophie turned her head.

Penny Chang stood beside a big green dumpster in an alley directly opposite her. The short, plump PR agent wore a fitted knee-length muumuu, rhinestone-studded sandals, a hibiscus in her sleek updo—and had a silenced pistol pointed at Sophie.

Penny still reminded Sophie of a sweet female Buddha. The gun seemed cartoonlike, a “one of these things does not belong” element from a child’s illustration in a magazine Sophie had seen in a doctor’s office.

“What do you want?” Sophie let go of the dogs’ leashes, hoping the two would realize something was amiss—but they saw no threat in the woman Sophie was speaking to. The Lab and the pit bull galloped away with home in sight.

“I want a little payback for the way you screwed me and my cousin over.” Penny gestured with the pistol. “Come closer. Into the alley.”

“So you can shoot me out of sight?” Sophie was too far from the woman to mount any kind of attack, and she hadn’t brought her own weapon. She’d thought she was safe.

But she was never safe.Bitterness tightened her throat.

“I can shoot you from here, just fine,” Penny said. “But I’d like to talk to you, first.”

Sophie’s gaze flicked to the side. The dogs had reached the apartment building and were running up the exterior stairs. They were headed for Jake’s place! Maybe he was there, maybe they could get his attention…

She had to buy time. “Tell me why you’re doing this.”

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