My mother’s fingers, still laced through mine, tightened.

And Julian, watching me stand there silent, made the single greatest mistake of the entire evening.

He read my silence as hesitation.

He thought he had landed the blow, thought he had watched the confident daughter from Dubai realize she was out of her depth in matters of law and property.

He smiled.

I did not correct his misreading, and I want to be honest that this was deliberate.

I could have told him, right then, standing in that living room, exactly how wrong he was.