“The company was under enormous pressure.”
“So you filed for divorce?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
I almost smiled.
“There’s a court decree that says exactly what it was like.”
Julian pushed away from the island.
“We needed clean ownership before financing.
Our lawyers kept warning me that unresolved marital interests could complicate control.
I was protecting NexaData.”
“By hiding a divorce from your wife?”
“We were still us.”
He said it with astonishing conviction.
“Nothing between us had to change.
The legal structure was separate.
We could have fixed it later.”
“Fixed it?”
“Remarried.
Amended things.
Whatever made sense after the round.”
I stared at him.
This was the explanation he had apparently prepared for himself: that a marriage could be dissolved secretly as a business tool, then restored whenever convenient.
“What about the mailbox?”
His silence answered before his mouth did.
“What mailbox?”
I slid Marcus’s photograph across the island.
Julian’s jaw tightened.
“You had me followed?”
“You had my court mail redirected.”
“I was controlling unnecessary complications.”
“You mean evidence.”
He looked at me differently then.
The warm husband disappeared.
The executive who had negotiated investors, contracts, and acquisitions took his place.
“Be careful, Valeria.
Turning this into a war could damage the company you claim to care about.”
It was the first open threat.
And it told me he still believed NexaData was the only leverage that mattered.
I reached into my bag and placed a second envelope beside the divorce decree.
It came from my father’s estate file.
The details were inside, out of Julian’s sight.
His eyes dropped to it.
“What’s that?”
“My father’s will was read the day I learned you divorced me.”
Something in his expression shifted.
I continued.
“He left me thirty-five million dollars.”
Julian stopped moving.
For the first time since the confrontation began, he had no immediate answer.
Then his voice softened.
“Valeria, whatever happened with the paperwork, you know our life is real.
We’re still married in every way that matters.”
I looked at the decree.
“Not according to the court.”
He stepped toward me.
“We should talk about this together.
That kind of money affects both of us.”
