Chapter 12: Terms Agreed
We signed temporary orders in a conference room that overlooked a parking lot, not a ballroom.
Separate residences affirmed. Financial restraints mutual and ordinary. Foundation assets and my separate property carved out with the clarity the gala had lacked. Daniel’s counsel spoke of reconciliation windows. Mine spoke of calendars and compliance. I initialed where required and did not linger for corridor conversation.
May you like
Outside, Daniel asked if the cabin was permanent. I said the cabin was mine. Permanence was a word for later, if the disclosures and the conduct that followed earned a later. He nodded once, the motion of a man finally hearing a language he had not studied.
Vanessa’s name appeared in no further correspondence that reached me. The industry’s attention span, like its loyalty, was finite. I granted her the same finite space in my mind and spent the afternoon on scholarship awards instead.
