The lender preserved communications.

And one month after the morning in the kitchen, Nora sat across from Colin for the first time in a courthouse conference room during a hearing related to the protective order.

He looked smaller than she remembered.

Not physically.

In influence.

He wore the same navy suit he had worn to weddings, funerals, and business dinners.

His hair was carefully styled.

His attorney whispered something to him as Nora entered with Leah and her own lawyer.

Colin stared at the bandage still covering part of Nora’s healing arm.

For one fleeting second, she expected remorse.

Instead, he mouthed, Look what you did.

Nora almost smiled.

There it was.

The old language.

The old spell.

Only now it no longer worked.

The judge extended the protective order.

Colin was barred from contacting Nora directly and from entering the townhouse while the criminal and financial investigations continued.

Outside the courtroom, Mason stood at the far end of the hallway talking to his attorney.

He looked at Nora once.

Then away.

Months followed.

Not dramatic months.

Paperwork months.

Statements.

Legal meetings.

Bank disputes.

Therapy appointments.

Repairs to the townhouse after Colin’s belongings were removed under supervision.

Nora expected freedom to feel triumphant.

Instead, it often felt exhausting.

She mourned things that had never been real in the way she thought they were.

The husband she believed she married.

The future she planned.

The ordinary routines that had been contaminated by fear.

One evening, while unpacking kitchen boxes, Nora found the rosemary plant Leah had rescued from the windowsill the day she left.

It was nearly dead.

Nora almost threw it away.

Instead, she trimmed the brown stems, replaced the soil, and set it near the window.

Weeks later, green shoots appeared.

The criminal case did not end with a theatrical confession.

Colin never admitted the full truth to Nora.

Through plea negotiations connected to financial fraud and the assault-related charges, both brothers eventually faced legal consequences.

Mason’s company collapsed.

Creditors descended.

Several suspicious applications connected to other people were investigated.

Camille cooperated and later took a bookkeeping job with a legitimate construction firm.

Nora spoke to her only once after the case moved forward.

They met at a café near the courthouse.

Camille stirred her tea for a long time without drinking it.

“Why did you call me?” Nora asked.

Camille looked toward the window.

“Because I kept imagining what would happen when they got the money.”

“What do you think would have happened?”

“They would have blamed you when it disappeared.”

Nora sat very still.

That possibility had occurred to her too.

Camille met her eyes.

“And because Colin scared me.”

“Did he threaten you?”

“Not directly.”

“Then what scared you?”

Camille thought for a moment.

“The way he talked about you.”

Nora said nothing.

“He talked like you were a problem he had already solved.”

The sentence stayed with Nora for a long time.

A year after the morning in the kitchen, the townhouse no longer looked the same.

Nora repainted the dining room herself.

She replaced the heavy curtains Colin liked with linen ones that let in more light.

She turned the home office into a room with bookshelves, a reading chair, and a desk facing the window instead of the wall.

The old glass teapot