Not hoped.
Expected.
That realization was worse than the leaving.
At midnight, Ethan called his older sister.
Mara answered on the third ring.
“If someone is dead, tell me first.”
“No one is dead.”
“Then why are you calling at midnight?”
Ethan tried to speak.
Nothing came.
Mara’s voice changed.
“What happened?”
“Vivian left.”
Silence.
“Left like angry drive around?”
“No.”
“Left like left?”
“She wants to date other men for a while.”
Another silence.
Then:
“What?”
Ethan laughed unexpectedly.
It sounded terrible.
Mara said, “Start again.”
He told her.
Not perfectly.
Not calmly.
The conversation took almost forty minutes.
When he finished, Mara asked one question.
“What do you want?”
“A divorce.”
The answer came instantly.
Mara did not say are you sure.
That mattered.
Instead:
“Then call Rebecca Lowe tomorrow.”
“Who?”
“My attorney.”
“You have an attorney?”
“I divorced Paul three years ago.”
“You apparently erased the unpleasant practical details.”
Ethan rubbed his face.
“Rebecca Lowe.”
“I’ll text her number.”
“Mara.”
“Yeah?”
“I feel ridiculous.”
“Why?”
“Because I warned her like some man in a movie.”
Mara was quiet.
Then:
“Did you mean it?”
“Yes.”
“Then it wasn’t theater.”
“What if I’m reacting too fast?”
“She spent six months thinking before packing.”
“You’re allowed one night.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
“I still love her.”
“I know.”
“That doesn’t change what I said.”
“No.”
“It doesn’t.”
Mara’s voice softened.
“Sleep if you can.”
He did not.
At 7:48 the next morning, Ethan called Rebecca Lowe.
At 9:15, he sat in her office.
She was fifty-two, silver-blonde, wearing a navy suit and the mildly impatient expression of someone who had heard every version of marital disaster and no longer found drama legally useful.
Ethan finished explaining.
Rebecca asked:
“Children?”
“No.”
“Joint business?”
“No.”
“Joint real estate?”
“The house is complicated.”
“Complicated how?”
“My father bought it originally.”
“When?”
“Before Vivian and I married.”
“Title?”
“Family trust, then transferred to me six years ago when Dad died.”
“Was Vivian added?”
“No.”
“Any refinance?”
“One.”
“Whose names?”
“Mine on title.”
“Both on note?”
“No.”
“Only me.”