"Love?" I asked. "Is that what you call it?"
Julian tried to reach for me again. I moved his hand away.
"You liked having a wife who asked for nothing. I did the work, you took the credit, and you assumed I would still be there after you finished with Mia."
"You loved the open door to my office, the contracts I repaired, and the home I kept ready for you. You never asked what any of it cost me."
"That isn't true."
"You fired me on our anniversary and called me a charity project. Which part did I misunderstand?"
He looked past me toward the windows. "My father helped your family. He took you in. He would have wanted us to honor that bond."
His father's debt was the last appeal he had left.
I stood and returned to the table. Inside my black alligator clutch was a checkbook and a pen.
