Property deeds.

The laptop with our financial records on it.

I was not throwing sentimental things into a bag through tears; I was calmly securing the evidence, the instruments, the proof of what was mine — the exact materials a person needs to take someone apart in a court of law.

Some cold, clear part of me, the part that had come online the moment I saw Valentina’s little smile, had already understood that the fight ahead would not be won in that hallway with shouting.

It would be won later, with paper.

And so while Damian delivered his threat about having nothing to come back to, imagining he was watching a broken woman retreat, he was in fact watching his opponent gather her arsenal and walk calmly out the door with it.