it until... Well, she had a bruise on her cheek one day."
"Do you think Zach did it?"
"I'm sure he did now, but back then... I didn't know. He was always so romantic with her. So charming and he had all these big ideas. He was an Army vet, you know. Looked like one of those guys on the cover of a romance novel. And he was always coming up with new business ideas that he wanted our friends to invest in. They never took off and I guess that pissed him off. I don't think it helped that Sophie was so successful. After a while, I think he resented her for that."
"Do you think their relationship was unhappy?"
"It went up and down. Sometimes he was great, sometimes not. When our landlord sold our apartment that year, Sophie moved in with him and started coming around less often. Canceling plans at the last minute. Too busy to hangout. We thought Zach was totally interfering but what could we say? He was never overtly an asshole but you knew not to cross him. He had this icy cold look in his eyes whenever he got mad. At least, he wasn't as wild as his sister."
"You knew her too? She was also called Sophie?"
"Yeah. But she was crazy! She drank too much, smoked too much, and partied too much. Apparently, they had a-hole parents so I guess their upbringing wasn't too strict. Sophie told me Zach escaped when he left for the Army but his sister had to put up with their parents until she could afford to leave. She was always getting in trouble for something or other. Barely graduated high school. Hardly ever managed to hold down a job. Always asking people for money. A real grifter. Sophie told me one day she thought the other Sophie was stealing money from her purse."
"They didn't get along?"
"Not one bit! And to be honest, we didn't like Sophie constantly coming around either. I was really surprised when Sophie and Zach got married but Sophie said things turned really good between them. Zach started freelancing for some Army buddy of his and was making good money when he proposed."
"Did you go to the wedding?"
"Yeah. It was just a courthouse wedding since neither of them had any family and afterward, we all had a dinner at a restaurant. I have photos of it if you want them? I don't know what use they might be?"
"That would be great," I decided. It certainly couldn't hurt to see the two Sophies and Zach altogether. "I actually wanted some more information about Zach's sister. Was she at the wedding too?"
"Yep. She complained that she wasn't a bridesmaid. Or the matron of honor. I’m sure she turned up in a cream dress just to be a jerk. She also said Sophie looked stupid in her dress and proceeded to drink a whole bottle of wine before the appetizers even arrived. She was a hot mess. Zach sent her home in a cab."
"Was she an alcoholic?"
"Yeah. She did drugs too. Sophie said she saw track marks on her arms. She was kinda scary. I think that's why she started stealing. She worked in a bar off the highway somewhere but I guess didn't earn much money. It was one of those bars that people mostly avoid, kind of on the rough side, and you wouldn't go inside it even if your car ran out of gas and you needed to use the phone or the bathroom. His sister even stole Sophie's car once when she needed to go to work!"
"Wow." So much information to absorb. The Sophie in the hospital bed looked so innocent and people spoke so nicely about her. It was hard to imagine her as a drug addict.
"Yeah. Can't pick your relatives, right? Anyway, I don't really know what happened after that because Sophie started dropping out of touch, more and more often, and when she lost her job, we hardly saw her again at all. Then she died. I'm sorry, that was a tangent. You were asking about Zach's sister. I hardly knew her and what little I did know, I didn't want to know, if you get my drift?"
"I do. Do you remember the name of the bar where she worked?"
"Might have been Ace's. I don't really recall quite honestly. I heard it closed after a fire last year and never reopened. Good riddance if you ask me."