If you need somewhere quiet to start your work over, Vivian, California is wide open.”

I touched my left wrist where my wedding band used to be and smoothed the linen napkin against the marble tabletop.

“Look into the business filing first,” I said.

“I’ll text you by three,” Theo said.

I left the café and took a cab straight down to Madison Avenue.

Nora Miller’s corner office smelled of old paper and peppermint tea gone lukewarm.

She uncapped her silver fountain pen, set it next to a pile of red-labeled corporate folders, and then picked it up again.