Chapter 25 Chapter Twenty-Four

After randomly stuffing supermarket shopping bags into the back seat of the car, Sophie Duncan realized that the car was cruising at a constant speed.She didn't know if she bought the right things, and she had a very bad premonition. When she felt home, she would remember that she forgot to buy some important things and had to come again, although she didn't mind buying some food.For her, it's mostly a no-brainer exercise—she's not a kitchen goddess—and she's there when the stores first open, avoiding the crowds of shoppers on Sunday.God!What happened on the day off? She turned the key and started the engine, and the local radio news blared, many of them about Olivia Brooks and her three children.Sophie felt a familiar unease somewhere in her heart, but quickly pushed it aside.Olivia will be fine, will be fine.

At this moment, eighteen months have passed since the day Olivia Brooks, or Liv Hunter, Sophie Duncan's eternal Liv Hunter, suddenly appeared after seven years without any news, and that day was also a long time ago. Time became the best day in Sophie's memory.At the time, she was having a few good days, struggling to come to terms with the fact that she would no longer be serving active duty for the foreseeable future.Her body felt like a stranger's, so frail and nothing like her.It no longer obeyed her orders and seemed to have a mind of its own, which bothered her. But the day Liv came was a happy day, and she temporarily forgot those pains.

When the doorbell rang, the mother was already struggling to stand up, but Sophie waved her hand at her. "Sit down, mom. I need to move around more, or I'll have to work at a desk for the rest of my life." Sophie pretended not to hear her mother's whisper, "That's a good job, too," Slowly and steadily toward the door of her mother's old 1930s semi-detached house. When the door was opened, she let out a scream. "Liv? Liv - is it really you? Oh my gosh! My gosh! Let me see. I miss you!" Liv looked at Sophie carefully, and tears kept rolling in her eyes when she saw the big and small injuries on her friend.Seeing this, Sophie deliberately raised her uninjured hand and shouted: "Look!" At the same time, she stood on tiptoe with her relatively intact leg and turned around a little, almost without falling, trying to make the atmosphere more active. a little.

"Oh, Sue—what's the matter? I heard on the news that a dam was attacked and you were trying to save people when the bombs went off. Are you going to get well?" "Of course. It's just a little bruise here and there, and as long as they get all the parts back up and running, I'll be all right. Come on, Liv. Laugh. Actually, I might have been Died—like some of my mates." For a moment, Sophie felt the smile on her face was dying, but fortunately, she had practiced and experienced in keeping a smile on her face for many years. "Come in and sit down, we'll open a bottle of wine later. Do you have any excuses, huh?" She put her arms around Liv's waist and dragged her friend to the living room, "Mom, let's see who's here."

"Oh, it's Liv, it's great to see you," said Sophie's mother, Margaret. "You know, we miss you so much. Both of us." Seeing a flash of apology on her friend's face, Sophie opened her mouth to help her. "Yeah, well—we're all wrong. If I hadn't patted my ass and gone to the other side of the world to join other people's wars, things might have been different. Liv has been doing what adults should do things, getting married, having kids. And me, I’ve been playing war games.” Indeed, everything should not be like this at all.When Sophie left Manchester—first for officer training at Sandhurst, and finally for her first overseas deployment—she did everything she could to keep in touch with Liv before leaving the city. Within a few weeks, her friends stopped writing to her.She always thought it was because she wasn't there for Liv when Dan left without saying goodbye, but when she was about to board a plane to Iraq and couldn't tell the British Army, her best friend felt bad, so I'm sorry I can't get on the plane.

At first they passed a few letters, but after Liv's parents passed away, there was no movement.Sophie knew that she must be too sad, so sad that it was extremely painful to write a letter, so when she learned from her mother that Liv married a man named Robert, Sophie also sent a greeting card, which said With a long blessing, I wish them the happiest couple in the world, and that greeting card seems to have disappeared. But Sophie is not a person who likes to hold grudges. On the contrary, she is very clear that human life is so short that it should not be wasted on caressing. At least Liv is here now, although the past seven years seem to make her become Older than Sophie expected.The skin around my friend's eyes and mouth was tight, as if she didn't smile much, and the bright radiance she used to exude seemed to have diminished a lot and became dull.

"I'll get some wine, let's sit down and have a good chat." Sophie said, limping towards the door. "I won't drink, Sophie, thank you. I have to drive, and, besides, I have to go back to pick up the children." "Oh—there's more than one now. How many children have you got?" "Three. I have to leave after about half an hour to pick them up from school." "Well, it's definitely okay to have a drink, right?" She leaned against the door for support and asked. "No way. If I show up to the kids smelling like alcohol, they'll ask me to volunteer before I can explain 'I only had one drink.'"

"It can't be that miserable." Sophie shouted.But looking at Liv's face, she somehow knew it was true. "Okay—how about a cup of tea then?" It was said that Sophie's mother struggled to stand up. "Sit down, Sophie, and I'll make tea. Liv hasn't been here for a long time, and you two must have a lot to talk about." Sophie hoped that her friend didn't notice that her mother's voice was slightly shrill.She was obviously thinking: Why wait so long for only five minutes?However, this is still the first step. "So, Liv, tell me what you've been through all these years, and your husband and kids—I want every damn detail."

When she walked out of the room, she heard her mother still muttering: "Pay attention to your wording, Sophie." The two friends looked at each other and smiled, feeling very happy. "No, Sophie, tell me what happened to you first. I couldn't believe it when I saw your picture on the news. We don't watch the news on TV very often, but I just turned it on for five minutes and you showed up." Now, it must have been dire, right?" "You don't read the news? Then how do you know what's going on in the world? Do you read the newspaper?" "Oh, it's all because of Robert. He wants me to be happy and thinks bad news will make me sad. In a way, it's like he's filtering the news for me - good news and not bad news, that's his way of taking care of me , but I still do a quick glance every now and then when he's not around. Never mind that, just tell me."

So Sophie told her friends about her time in Iraq, Afghanistan, and her career in intelligence.She keeps her voice neutral, but doesn't try to hide the fact that she loves her job.She knew she was rushing and was a little unclear, but she wanted to finish the story before her mother returned to the room.She and Liv talked about the day of the bombing, and the massacre.Although she was hailed as a hero, so many people died and she only saved a few. Hearing the sound of her mother opening the door, she quickly changed the subject. "Do you remember the day we met? You were in your room dancing joyously, jumping over upside-down suitcases, kicking clothes and picking them up and throwing them in the air. You were a madman."

Liv had already turned to Sophie's mother, trying to look as indignant as possible. "Auntie, your daughter broke into my room without knocking on the door, and stood there peeking at me." "Mommy, you should have seen her. She was a real slob and always blamed her dad for being so clean. I had to fold everything and put everything away for her. Even when we lived together, I had to pack up after her every few weeks." "Yeah, and if I remember correctly, you always left me a funny note saying 'lazy cow' 'sloppy donkey' or some similarly derogatory word. But then we did Had a great time, huh?" Liv laughed, looking almost exactly like Sophie had when she first met her. "You're having a good time," said Sophie, pointing a finger accusingly at her, "but I feel like your nanny. You're so bold that you can do anything. Every brainless You take part in all the stupid stuff and if I don't watch you you drag me in too. I think every man in Manchester loves you and sometimes I feel like your bodyguard , beat them back one by one." Liv laughed so hard she couldn't see her teeth. "No way. Anyway, after I met Dan, I never looked at other people in the eye again." As soon as Dan was mentioned, Liv's face drooped immediately. "Poor guy. I know it must have hurt like sodomy—sorry, Mom. But look at you now, happily married with three kids. Did you find out what happened to Dan?" "No, I have no news from him." Sophie nodded, then looked down at her clasped hands.She didn't know if it was right now to tell Liv what she knew, but she had never been one to keep secrets. "I saw Danash's brother Samir." She said softly. "what?" Sophie suddenly realized that she shouldn't provoke this matter again.She originally thought that her friend and Dan were over now, but when she saw her friend eagerly leaning towards her, with big eyes full of expectation, she knew that was far from the case. "What did he say? Where did you see him?" "Dubai. I got a serious illness in some goddamn place—or somewhere else, I can't remember. Anyway, I was airlifted to Dubai and put in the hospital. When they said my attending doctor's last name was I was a little skeptical when I saw Jahande. Because I remember you told me that Samir is a doctor. Although Samir is really a fairly common name. But when I saw him, I recognized him at a glance I've seen him before - don't you remember - when he came up and scolded his brother for embarrassing the family by living out of marriage with an unfaithful white woman, and said Dan should have married his cousin or something." Looking at Liv's face, Sophie knew she remembered it well.Liv found out she was pregnant just a few weeks later, so any thoughts Danash might have had of leaving Manchester after his doctorate had to be dismissed. "Samir works in a hospital in Dubai, where he earns money and then volunteers a few weeks a year to work in some of the poorer parts of Iran. I kind of like him." From Sophie's point of view, Liv has a right to know what Samir said about Danash, so she tells her.Perhaps this will finally put an end to any dreams she clings to. When Sophie finished speaking, Liv was clearly holding back the tears that were about to burst into her eyes, and within a few minutes, she said that she was leaving.Sophie wondered if she would see her former best friend in the future.She didn't mention that Liv never answered her letter - the conversation came too late and filled with too many tears. But that was all a long time ago.Time passed quickly month by month, and too many things happened in the meantime. Sophie shook her head, pulled herself out of the memories, it was time to start thinking about the future.Soon she'll be back in service, she's had numerous operations on her leg, the last one seems to be successful, and all she has to do is wait, wait for the wound to heal.What's more, during her recovery, she completed a course in Pashto, the language most favored by the Taliban.The reason why she appeared here was because of her mother, her extremely worried mother.Mother's arthritis was getting worse, but they installed a wheelchair with electric pulleys so she could still get up and go to the downstairs bedroom. When Sophie first came back from Afghanistan, she already had some savings. She wanted to save the money to ensure that her mother could afford the required expenses, but her mother refused.She was stubborn and didn't want Sophie to spend a penny.It didn't matter now though, because the savings had been pretty much wiped out in the past twelve months, and it was hard for her to explain it to her mother. Sophie parked in the short driveway behind her mother's silver Fiesta, which she insisted on keeping even though it hadn't been driven in two years, "for the next time I'm ready to drive again" .Everyone knew that she would never drive again, but no one said anything. When Sophie took out the first shopping bag, her mind was full of worries and chaos.She settled the bag on her knees, put the key in the front door lock, and started calling for Mother. "It's me, Mom." There was no response, maybe she was still sleeping. So Sophie went back to the car, picked up the remaining bags, carried them to the kitchen, and started unpacking the bags.Maybe she should go see her mother first.She was standing at the bottom of the stairs, and the electric wheelchair was at the top, so it didn't make much sense to look in the living room. "Mum," she called again, lowering her voice, trying not to wake her if she was sleeping, "would you like some tea and biscuits?" There was a short silence. "That's very nice. Thanks, Sophie." Sophie's hair stood on end when she heard this.The voice upstairs was definitely not her mother's.