Page 52 of Wired Ghost

“Come with us, miss.” The security guard touched her arm.

But Sophie didn’t move. She couldn’t. It was too hard to take in.

Janice lifted her streaming face from Monica’s shoulder. Her visage was contorted with grief, her eyes wild. “Get out of here!” She screamed. “You’re the reason he’s dead! You killed my son!”

It was time to go.

“Goodbye, mykun dii.” Sophie whispered.

She turned and walked woodenly down the hall, a security guard on either side.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Sophie

Two weeks later

Three daysafter arriving on Phi Ni, Sophie woke in her familiar bed in the guest suite she used at Connor’s house. She lay still on the silky white sheets, staring up at the thick teak beams and woven matting that lined the interior of the roof. A brightly colored green gecko with red spots on its tail ran across the ceiling, chirping cheerfully.

For a long moment in that gray space between asleep and awake, Sophie savored the sensations of the soft bed and top quality sheets. This was her favorite place in the world to be. Why did she feel so achy and exhausted?

She stretched her arms and legs.Was she injured?

Oh. Yes.

Jake was dead.

She treasured those few moments when she first woke up, before her body, with its bone deep sorrow, reminded her of her loss. The grief lived in her flesh, weighing it down, sapping her vitality. It owned her physical self, while her mind couldn’t seem to hold onto the fact that Jake was gone, even though she’d attended his memorial with all of their mutual friends.

Every minute of that beautiful, bittersweet gathering was etched on her brain, much as she longed to forget or deny it. Janice had tried to bar Sophie’s attendance, but Patty had taken Sophie’s side and sat with her through the brief, moving service at Ala Moana Beach Park under one of the banyan trees.

She’d found a little comfort in hearing from Patty that several of Jake’s vital organs had been infection free, and had been donated.

“He was adamant that anything useful left of his body be given to someone who might need it,” Patty had said at the memorial. The sweet blonde woman had shaken her head. “Jake never believed he’d live to be a ripe old age.”

Maybe, given how he had made his living, that had once been true.But in those precious moments Sophie had shared in his arms underground, she knew that they’d both hoped for much more than they’d been given.

After the memorial, Connor had urged her to go to Phi Ni. With Momi and Armita back with Sophie for her custody month, unable to sleep or eat, Sophie had packed up her household and taken the Security Solutions jet to Thailand for the month, hoping the island paradise could work its healing magic one more time.

The gecko skittered away. The chatter of mynahs came in through the wooden louvers that shaded the room from Thailand’s heat during the day. In the three days they’d been on the island, Sophie could already feel peace beginning to massage her battered soul.

Momi loved Phi Ni, playing all day with Sophie and Armita on the pristine half-moon of beach below Connor’s clifftop mansion, paddling in the calm turquoise water, and building sandcastles.

Another day without Jake stretched before her, but Momi deserved her full attention and Sophie would do what she had to, keeping to their simple daily routine. Sophie tossed the light coverlet aside and sat up. She stretched her arms overhead, and then opened the louvers further. Sunlight poured in like honey.

Ginger and Anubis raised their heads from their dog beds across the room, their ears pricked. “Hey, pups. It’s good to be with you again.” The two got up and padded over; they knew better than to get on the bed with her, but she took a moment to pet Ginger’s silky head and play with her soft ears, and scratch dignified Anubis’s chest.

Momi poked her curly head up from the trundle bed beside Sophie’s. “Mama!” Her large, light brown eyes sparkled up at Sophie. “Momi come up!”

“Of course, darling.” Sophie caught the toddler under the armpits and lifted her onto the bed. Momi, at two and a half, had become aware of herself as a separate person from her parents or Armita this month. She declared her intentions loudly in the third person, and “no” was currently her favorite word.

With her daughter around, there was little time for Sophie to get deep into sadness. Not only was Momi lively, energetic, and good-natured, she was demanding.

Her daughter was the very antidote to grief and depression, but even so, Sophie had increased her dose of medication. No matter how down she got, she would not allow a low mood to color the relationship with her child, as her mother Pim Wat had done with her.

That didn’t mean being upbeat was easy.

“Peek-a-boo!” Momi yelled, lifting up Sophie’s cover and ducking under it.

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