Sophie (The Boss 8)

Every hair on my body bristled. “There isn’t a type, Neil. It’s not like some women are abused because of who they are or how they act, and others are immune.”

Both Neil and El-Mudad just stared at me with increasingly uncomfortable expressions.

I closed my eyes and refrained from rubbing my temples in annoyance as I tried to figure out where to start on abuse 101. “Valerie was in a super vulnerable place when she met Laurence. She’d just lost you, Neil. I know that she lost you a long time ago, but when you and I got married, that shut the file forever. There wasn’t another chance. And she may have overlooked a lot of red flags because she wanted to be happy. She wanted things to work out.”

“Go on.” Neil’s voice was hoarse.

“Then Emma died. Imagine how much she relied on him. Imagine how easy it must have been to assume control of everything.” I gave them a moment to mull that over before adding, “Maybe the change in Valerie’s personality didn’t have as much to do with Emma’s death as it had to do with Laurence’s influence.”

“And now she’s in too deep to do anything about it,” El-Mudad finished for me, horror dawning on his features. “Neil...Sophie might be right.”

I could tell that Neil didn’t want to believe it. He would rather stay angry with Valerie. It would be easier to hurt her if she was the villain.

“So, what do we do?” he asked softly.

“I think we carry on with the plan to limit visitations to supervision only.” That was an ugly necessity. “But I also think we need more information. I don’t want to make accusations or anything if there’s nothing to rescue her from.”

“You’re rescuing Valerie now?” Neil asked with grim amusement.

I rolled my eyes. “Poor choice of words. But you know what I mean. If something is going on, we have to be super delicate about it because it could endanger her if anything gets back to him. But if there’s nothing…”

“Then we’ve complicated the situation further for no reason at all,” El-Mudad said with a frustrated noise. “Do you know anyone who could tell you—”

“Rudy,” Neil said without hesitation. “I can speak to Rudy.”

“No. Wait.” There was too much history of Neil and Valerie being at each other’s throats or meddling in each other’s lives. Rudy wouldn’t tell him anything if it meant getting involved in drama between them. He was the demilitarized zone of their friend triangle. “Let me talk to him.”

Neil opened his mouth to refute me.

I didn’t give him a chance. “I have distance from the decades of fucked up you all have gone through together. If you go to him, it’s going to look like you’re trying to dig up dirt on Valerie and Laurence. If I go—”

“It will seem like you care about her since you care so little for Rudy’s company,” Neil said wryly.

“I wasn’t going to put it that way.” It wasn’t like I hated Rudy or something. He just always made me feel like I was on trial. “But also, I don’t have a long and weird history with Valerie. And I’m not Rudy’s friend. He might feel less caught in the middle if he tells me instead of you. And that’s a big if.”

"It's not a situation that will be easily resolved, Sophie," El-Mudad said gently.

He was right. Some women never left their abusers. Even when they did, it wasn't always safe. And so far, we had no evidence that Valerie was interested in going. Or even if my suspicions were correct.

"There's another problem here, one that I would rather not think about," Neil admitted.

I thought I knew what it was. "That this is going to be dangerous for Valerie?"

"No." He shook his head and wouldn't meet our eyes. "Please understand...it isn't that I'm not concerned for Valerie. But compared to my concern for Olivia...Valerie can be your priority in this if you like, Sophie. But she is certainly not mine."

My heart clenched. This wasn't like him at all. Not where Valerie was concerned. Their friendship was toxic and co-dependent, and I certainly didn't want to encourage that dynamic, but Neil's coldness took my breath away. This was what I'd always wanted, wasn't it? To hear Neil say he didn't care about her?

"Valerie isn't my priority," I said, my throat sticking closed. "Obviously, I'm putting Olivia first here. Helping Valerie get away from Laurence isn't just for her. It's for Olivia, too."

El-Mudad nodded. "Sophie's making a good point. If we choose to go ahead with this adoption, they'll be able to argue against us in court. If Valerie is still with Laurence...if something happens to endanger our custody...”

"We don't want her to end up living with a violent man." Neil looked as though he might be sick.