Chapter 18 - One Year Later
I invited him.
Not because I wanted him back.
Because I no longer needed his absence to prove I was free.
Luca arrived last.
He brought no date.
Chloe came separately with friends.
Evelyn sat at the head of the table until she realized I had deliberately placed her there.
“You’re impossible,” she told me.
“You taught me.”
Employees, old friends, family, and people who had helped save Vance Capital filled the villa.
There was music.
Food.
Laughter.
No legal documents.
At one point, Luca stood alone beside the windows.
I joined him.
“Remember this night last year?” he asked.
“Unfortunately.”
He smiled.
“I was an idiot.”
“You were many things.”
“That sounded diplomatic.”
“I’m a CEO now.”
He laughed.
Then his expression softened.
“You look happy.”
“I am.”
“I’m glad.”
And I believed him.
Across the room, Chloe was laughing with Evelyn.
Life was strange.
Luca looked toward the dining table.
“I thought everything in this room belonged to me.”
“I know.”
“The house. The company. You.”
“Yes.”
He swallowed.
“I didn’t understand the difference between being loved and being entitled to the person loving me.”
That was perhaps the wisest thing I had ever heard him say.
“You understand now.”
“Too late.”
“For us.”
He nodded.
“For us.”
There was sadness in that.
But no bitterness.
The marriage was over.
The war was over too.
After everyone left, I found a small envelope beneath my plate.
No name.
Inside was the original black fountain pen Luca had placed on the divorce papers.
A note was wrapped around it.
You were right not to sign.
I looked toward the driveway.
Luca’s car disappeared beyond the gates.
I carried the pen into my office.
Then I placed it in a drawer.
Not as a trophy.
As a reminder.
Never sign away yourself merely because somebody puts a deadline on your dignity.
May you like
The next morning, sunlight filled the villa.
And for the first time, the future felt larger than the past.
