"Do not sign anything Julian brings you," she said. "Don't let him speak for your studio, and don't confuse evidence of a broken marriage with evidence of a business contract. We can address each issue through the proper channels."
"What should I do about the affair?" I asked.
Nora's tone softened. "You decide what you want to know, and what knowing would accomplish. You don't need a detective's file to be allowed to leave a relationship. If you choose a divorce, your reasons do not need to satisfy Julian before they become real."
I told her I had not yet decided what I wanted, and she accepted the answer. We agreed that she would draft a notice for the unauthorized use of the design concepts and arrange an appointment when I returned to Atlanta. She also encouraged me to safeguard copies of financial records and correspondence that legitimately belonged to me, without entering private accounts or taking material I had no right to access. For the first time in days, the practical steps felt like foundations rather than weapons.
Thursday morning, a message from Julian appeared while I was eating breakfast. "Sofia says she talked to you. I can't believe you cornered my employee while we're trying to finish this report. You're making this situation impossible."
I stared at it in disbelief. Sofia had approached me voluntarily, confessed an affair and described the use of my work, yet Julian had already arranged the story so that I had committed the offense. I typed a reply, erased it, and typed a shorter one.
"I know about the relationship since December. I know about Ashford House. I won't discuss either through accusations by text. Please direct business matters to Nora and Nina. I'll make decisions about our marriage when I return."
His response came as a single line. "You have no idea what you're doing."
I looked at the pale circle on my finger and the open sea beyond the terrace. He was right in one limited sense: I had never ended a marriage, never confronted a husband after a confession of infidelity, and never dealt with someone using personal access to place my work inside an investor presentation. But not knowing every next step did not make my decision wrong. It meant I would need advice and patience and the courage to learn what I had hoped never to know.
I had imagined that learning the truth would leave me free of uncertainty, but instead it made uncertainty sharper. If Julian had been involved with Sofia for months, what had his tears at our wedding meant? Had he loved me and been selfish enough to betray me anyway, or had he treated our ceremony as another obligation that needed managing? I would never know all of what lived inside his private thoughts, and I had to begin accepting that the answer might not matter as much as the choices he had made in front of me.