It contained the accusation of emotionality, always leveled at a woman who is being perfectly rational; the implied threat wrapped in concern; and the invocation of a shared future, a both of us, designed to make me feel that my interests were still bound up with theirs and that I had better protect the alliance.

But it did not work anymore, because the thing it depended on no longer existed.

“There is no longer a both of us, Julian,” I said.

“The divorce was finalized this morning.

There is your family, and there is me, and as of today those are two entirely separate things.” I could hear him recalibrating on the other end of the line, could hear the concern-tactic fail and the anger begin to rise up behind it, and I understood that we had reached the part of the conversation where Julian Vance, denied what he wanted, stopped pretending to be reasonable.

Chapter 5 — You Owe My Family