The car ride to the restaurant was quiet, but not cold. Julian didn’t speak much, and I didn’t need him to. His presence filled the space in a way that silence didn’t threaten. It held me. Like still water, steady and deep.

I watched the city blur past the window. My reflection looked different tonight. Not because of what I wore or how I sat, but because something inside me had shifted. I had walked into that boardroom with everything I had ever buried, and I had walked out without ...