Camille went quiet for a moment, eyes fixed on the road. Then she glanced briefly at Vivienne. "But, Viv..." Her voice dropped slightly. Not out of concern—more like someone who had just remembered something bothersome enough to bring up. "What if Norman has someone on the side?" Vivienne stopped staring out the window. Then laughed. Not a small laugh—a long enough one to make clear she found the question no more serious than a joke. "Norman?" She shook her head. "Camille, are you serious?" "I'm just saying—" "I check everything." Vivienne cut in with the tone of someone explaining something obvious to someone very slow to catch on. "His W******p, his F******k, his X, his Instagram—all of it. Every day. And I don't leave any room for that." Camille raised an eyebrow. "Every day?" "Every day." Vivienne nodded without a trace of embarrassment. "And that's not all..." She opened her wallet. Black crocodile leather, limited edition, the bag alone worth three months of most peop

Two seconds.That was how long it took Vivienne and Camille to process what was standing in front of them.Not a Norman waiting in his room with swollen eyes. Not a Norman sending desperate messages from behind a phone screen. Not a Norman who had spent last night putting together an apology convincing enough to work.Norman was standing right here. Composed. With the expression of someone who had finished one thing and was ready to finish the next.Camille was the first to unfreeze.He actually came?!So he wasn't sitting in his room hugging a pillow and crying?!How is that—Then something else cut through. Faster, and hotter.Right. This bastard called me a bitch last night.This man—Norman Calloway, who was supposed to be too spineless to lift his head in front of her—had hung up after calling her a bitch."You son of a bitch!" Camille's voice detonated, sharp in the quiet waiting room. Her head snapped toward Norman, finger pointing. "You think you can talk to me like that last n

Vivienne stared at the documents.Then at Norman.Then at the documents again.The numbers on the page didn't move, didn't change, didn't offer any more pleasant alternative interpretation.Negative thirty million dollars?!"No." Her voice came out harder than she intended. "No, no, and no."She shoved the folder to the side of the table with one sweep of her hand."That debt came from your failed business ventures. That's your problem, not mine. I had nothing to do with your idiotic business decisions, so I am not paying a single cent of that figure.Norman didn't move."And don't forget what I'm entitled to." Vivienne continued, her voice climbing. "I'm owed half of the marital assets. That's the law. The apartment, the car, the accounts—half of it is mine.""There's nothing to divide."Vivienne stopped."The apartment, the cars, the bank accounts—all of it is legally owned by my parents."Norman answered in the same even tone, like someone reading out the contents of a contract to

Camille didn't move.Her hand—the one that had just been swatted away—was still in the same position in the air, as if her brain hadn't yet sent the signal to lower it. The pain wasn't severe, but it was there. And far more painful than that was the fact that Norman had done it without a single moment of hesitation.Since when does he have the nerve to do this to me?!That thought arrived as the only sentence her brain could form while trying to process too much at once.All this time, every time Camille had berated him, humiliated him in front of others, Norman had swallowed it. That was because she was Vivienne's best friend, and that gave her a license to keep pushing Norman around whenever she wanted, at whatever opportunity came up.And all Norman could do was look down and smile in that uncomfortable way of his.But last night, Norman had called her a bitch on the phone. And now this—swatting her hand away like she was nothing more than an annoying fly.What the hell actually ha

Vivienne drew one breath.Then smiled—the smile of someone who believes they're holding the final card and knows exactly how to play it."Fine." Her voice came out light, almost casual, like someone offering a perfectly reasonable solution to a problem that didn't need to be this complicated. "I'll give you one way out, Norman. One."She placed her hand on the table, the way someone does when staking their position."Buy Felix a car worth three million dollars. I'll take that as a genuine apology for all your mistakes and your stupidity."Her eyes didn't move from Norman."Do that, and we walk out of here today without signing anything. I forgive you, we go back to normal life, and neither of us ever has to think about this two-day drama again."A brief pause."But if not—" Her smile didn't change. "There's nothing left to discuss. We get divorced, and there's no hope of you ever coming back."She leaned back slightly in her chair, shoulders relaxed, expression unhurried.This will wo