There, alone on a piece of concrete, amidst the noise of the trucks. It was Marc who brought me back.
Sophie turned pale.
“I came back to get you,” she protested.
“Two hours later,” I replied. “After they called you.”
She looked at me, her mouth slightly open.
— How do you know that?
— The station manager called here to ask if a resident was missing. Marc had warned that he feared she’d been abandoned. That’s how I learned that before coming back, you had first called the police.
I fixed it.
— Not to report me missing, but to report your car stolen. You thought I’d taken the wheel, you who keep telling everyone I’m no longer capable of anything.
The truth remained suspended between us.
Sophie finally lowered her eyes.
“I was upset,” she murmured. “I reacted badly.”
“One can always apologize,” I said calmly. “But what one
