That sentence stayed with me.
Luca offered his plane.
My first instinct was to refuse simply because accepting felt too large.
Then I asked myself a better question.
Would private travel make the day easier for Fiona?
Yes.
So I accepted.
Not because Luca was a billionaire.
Because I was beginning to understand that independence did not mean refusing every kind thing offered to me.
It meant knowing why I was saying yes.
Chicago felt different when I returned.
The buildings were the same.
The roads were the same.
But I was no longer arriving as David’s wife trying to get back into her house.
I was arriving with my own attorney.
The hearing was closed.
Luca waited elsewhere.
I insisted on that.
David entered with his lawyer and looked at me as though he had expected to find a completely different woman.
He looked tired.
Angry too.
But underneath the anger was confusion.
