I looked at his hand and left mine beside the folder. I did not trust myself to touch him without making a scene. His smile held for one second too long before he withdrew it. Then he seated himself beside Clare, close enough that his knee almost touched hers, and rested an arm across the back of her chair. It was the position of someone claiming territory.
Dana began with the documents. She spoke slowly, confirming that each party had independent counsel and the opportunity to review the terms. Clare's lawyer repeated several provisions in ordinary language, and we initialed the pages where instructed. James interrupted twice to ask how long the transfers would take. Both attorneys reminded him politely that the agreement was between Clare and me and that he had no authority to direct its terms.
For almost twenty minutes the room was so ordinary it felt surreal. Pens clicked. Paper shifted. A printer hummed in the office next door, and someone's phone buzzed twice before being silenced.
Clare did not look at me except when a signature line required us to pass a page across the table. I studied the ink flowing beneath my name and tried to remember how we'd felt signing the marriage license a decade earlier. That paper had been an invitation to a future. This one was an accounting of what remained after the future changed.
Then we reached the payment instructions. Dana slid the relevant page toward Clare's lawyer and explained that our side had made one adjustment. Under the agreement, any payment from the settlement would go directly into an account held solely in Clare's name. Not into a business account, not into a joint account, and not to a third party. Once the agreed funds were transferred to Clare, she would have full control over them, subject to any lawful obligations of her own.
James's smile vanished. "That's unnecessary," he said. "Clare and I are partners. The money is going straight into the business, so transferring it twice only complicates things."
Dana looked directly at Clare's attorney. "Our client is willing to satisfy his obligation to Ms. Reynolds. He is not willing to make payment to a company controlled by someone who isn't a party to the settlement. Your client should receive her own funds."
"We're not trying to hide anything," James said sharply. "It's a legitimate investment."
"Then Ms. Reynolds can decide to make that investment after she receives her money," Dana answered. "That decision isn't part of this agreement."
Clare turned toward me, confusion cutting through her controlled expression. "Why do you even care where the money goes?" she asked. "You keep saying you're letting me go, but you're still trying to interfere."
I felt every pair of eyes in the room move toward me. I could have told her about Rachel then, could have listed the messages, the vanished food truck, the imaginary Fourth Street lease. For an instant I wanted to put everything on the table and watch James's face change. But Rachel had her own case underway, Clare had already rejected my warning, and there was a narrower answer that mattered most in that moment.