I made the decision before lunch.
Not dramatically. Not with the kind of internal thunder women in bad films are granted before they reclaim their lives in expensive shoes.
I finished the second section of NIRVANA, set the tablet down, and understood with a clarity so clean it almost felt impersonal that Silas had been right.
If I left Auston half-ended, he would keep treating the marriage like an unlocked door.
If I ended it properly, he might still pound on the frame.
But he would do it from the outside.
Helena came when I asked for a car as if the request had been expected.
"This afternoon?" she asked.
"Yes."
She nodded once. "I will let Mr. Vanderbilt know."
"I wasn't asking permission."
"No," she said. "You weren't."
That should not have relieved me.
It did anyway.
By th
