That evening, Malcolm invited Victoria to dinner with two members of the project team.
She almost declined.
Her eyes felt tired. Her marriage was collapsing in messages she had stopped opening. She wanted to lie beneath a blanket and let the day end.
Then Priya said, “Go if you want to. You don’t have to disappear because he behaved badly.”
Victoria went.
The conversation was easy.
They talked about buildings, train journeys, and a restaurant renovation that had gone wrong because nobody measured the staircase properly.
Victoria laughed.
Halfway through dessert, she realized she had not checked her phone in an hour.
Ethan had been certain she would retreat.
He had rearranged the seats, the hotel, and the invitation as though logistics could decide who she was.
Yet she was still here.
At her own table.
Being asked her own opinion.
Back at the hotel, she called her sister, Caroline.
She told her everything.
Caroline listened without interrupting.
Then she asked, “What do you need when you get home?”
Victoria looked at the unfamiliar room.
“Somewhere quiet.”
“You can stay with me.”
“I don’t know how long.”
“We don’t need to decide tonight.”
Victoria closed her eyes.
For years, Ethan had made every need feel like something that required a complete argument.
Caroline made room before asking for an explanation.
That difference stayed with her.
