“I suppose we should start calling you Miss Sutton again.”

She glanced at me with a satisfied smile.

“Good luck starting over. And please don’t come asking Julian for money when reality catches up with you.”

I ignored her.

Instead, I looked at Julian.

He sat forward in his chair, staring at the marble floor.

He was wearing the slate-gray shirt I had chosen for our fourth anniversary.

“Do you really have nothing to say?” I asked.

Julian tightened his jaw.

“Leah, Mom is just establishing boundaries.”

He finally looked at me.

“Let’s not make this harder than it already is.”

Boundaries.

His mother was ordering me out of the home I had helped redesign while warning me not to touch anything connected to the company I had helped build.

And Julian called that boundaries.

There was no apology.

No embarrassment.

Eleanor leaned forward.

“Do not make yourself into a victim.”

Her expression hardened.

“This family gave you opportunities you never would have had otherwise. You came into this house with very little, and you should be grateful for everything you received.”

I almost laughed.

Very little.

For years, I had stayed awake until three in the morning drafting designs that helped keep Vanguard competitive.

I had watched my name disappear from presentations built around concepts I created.

I had allowed project bonuses I earned to be moved into shared financial structures because Julian insisted it was best for our future.

And somehow, I was still the one who had contributed nothing.

“If she’s leaving, she should leave now,” Mila said.

Then she added with a smirk,

“People who arrive with nothing sometimes become very interested in taking things when they go.”

“Mila, enough,” Julian muttered.

But even then, he wasn’t defending me.

He simply didn’t like how ugly her words sounded inside his elegant living room.

I stood.

The leather chair shifted beneath me as I placed my copy of the divorce papers inside my tote.

“I understand.”

Eleanor smiled.

She mistook my calmness for defeat.

I looked directly at her.

“And Eleanor?”

Her smile weakened.

“That is the last time I will ever call you Mom.”

Silence filled the room.

Mila finally looked up from her phone.

Julian’s expression changed for only a second, but I saw it.

Concern.

Eleanor stared at me.

“What did you just say?”

I didn’t repeat myself.

Some things only need to be said once.

I turned and walked upstairs.

Every step reminded me of the renovation work I had once supervised throughout the house.

My office was on the third floor at the end of a long hallway.

I stepped inside and locked the door.

Seconds later, Eleanor’s voice carried up from downstairs.