Tyler's face was stoic when he asked the question. They hadn't talked in weeks, hadn't seen each other since the day he told her to decide what she wanted.

"Kate heard I was suspended and she knows how much my job means to me."

"You are not answering my question, Sophie. Again."

Yes, she had a tendency to answer his questions without answering them. Every time it was about Kate she did this. It should tell him more than any answer did.

"I think our dinner is about to be delivered." Kate reappeared and made Sophie exhale only to let her wonder the next second if it was good when Tyler and Kate were together at the same table.

Tyler got up to let her sit on her chair again.

"I think I have my answer."

"Tyler…" Tyler what? He knew the answer and it didn't change just because she was too coward to say it out loud. "I'm sorry."

"So am I." He pulled the ring off his finger and laid on the table. "Maybe Kate wants it." With these words he walked away, not looking at her anymore.

Sophie buried her face in her hands. It hadn't been a loud scene, it hadn't been a nasty fight, yet she felt like hell. He had made the decision for them. Again. Because she wasn't strong enough to be honest to him and to herself. Again.

"Coq au vin."

The voice of the waiter made her look up. Kate had been right, their dinner was ready and she had to get herself together.

"That's for me. Thank you." She waited until Kate had her plate too and the waiter excused himself. Now it was time for the next awkward conversation. Kate hadn't left because she needed the bathroom, she had left to give Sophie time and space to work things out with Tyler and she was smart enough to see, Sophie hadn't been brave enough to be entirely honest with him.

"I am not strong enough to stand up for myself."

"He made the decision for you."

"No, he understood the answer I gave him without words. He is not stupid, he knows us being here means, I don't want to go back to him, that I don't share the same dreams and plans for my future he does." Sophie looked at the ring, unable to touch it. "He told me, he wants kids, family traditions. I can't see myself as a mother. Nor as his wife."

"Have you ever seen yourself as his wife? Really committed to stay with him until the end of your life?" Kate asked softly.

"No. Not when I was honest with myself. I tried to tell myself it was the best for me, for my career, that it was what everybody wants me to do, to be. Pretending to be the person people want you to be gets you where you want to be in society, it doesn't make you happy. It keeps you in a prison, a self-made prison and I'm still not capable of opening the doors and throw away the key. Your sister was right. She might end up in a cell one day, in a dark hole, my prison is one I chose myself and that is worse."

"Are you…telling me this was our last dinner?" Kate hadn't touched her food. Like Sophie's food, the steak lay on the plate, untouched, getting cold.

"No, I'm telling you I am not strong enough to be the person you want me to be, the person you deserve to have by your side. I'm just…me." A weak excuse for a highly trained agent. No wonder Alice had made fun of her instead of killing her. Sophie was too weak to waste a bullet on her.