Wait.” I stopped.

“I honestly never believed,” he said, shaking his head, “that you would actually put those cheap soup cups on the table.

In front of everyone.”

Once, I would have spent an hour explaining myself to him.

This time I only said, “That was always your mistake, Brandon.

You never believed I would stop solving your problems for you.” He looked at the floor and found nothing to say.

And as I walked out into the bright morning, my phone buzzed with one last text from Rosalind — You destroyed my son’s life, and one day Toby will see what kind of heartless woman you really are — and I took a calm screenshot of it, sent it to my attorney’s file, and blocked her number for good.