I could have explained about the deed and the lawyer and the utter absence of any legal ground under his feet.

I chose not to.

I let him have his smile.

I let him spend the next four and a half hours believing he had won, believing I was a rattled woman who would go get a hotel room and come back chastened in the morning ready to negotiate.

Some people, when they are about to lose everything, are owed a warning, a chance to reconsider, a door left open.

Julian was not one of them.