Inside Keir’s bedroom, time feels suspended.
Isla draws a slow breath and reaches forward.The envelope is heavier than it should be for paper.She pulls out the paperwork, and the pages whisper softly, legal language immediately flattening everything into cold, neat sentences.
She reads the first page aloud without meaning to.
“Irreconcilable differences… marital misconduct… division of assets…”
Her mouth twists.“They always make it sound reasonable.”
“That’s the point,” Callum says, quiet.
She turns the page.
Her eyes catch phrases she’s heard her mother say for years, polished into a weapon.
In the interest of stability.
For the child’s well-being.
To minimize harm.
Isla exhales sharply.“She uses those words like shields.”
Callum leans in slightly.“She believes them.”
Isla looks up.“Do you?”
“I believe she believed she was right,” he answers.
That distinction lands with a dull thud in Isla’s chest.It’s easier to hate a villain.It’s harder to hate someone who thought she was saving you.
They read on.The custody section is brief, almost dismissive.There’s no argument presented on Keir’s behalf.The document assumes compliance, as if resistance was never a possibility.
Isla’s fingers curl into the paper.
“There,” she says, tapping the paragraph.“That clause.”
Callum shifts closer and reads it again, his expression sharpening with each word.
No direct or indirect contact.
It doesn’t scream.It doesn’t threaten in bold letters.It simplydeclares, clinical and absolute, as if love were a dangerous substance and Keir were being ordered to quarantine it.
“No contact,” Isla whispers.“Not even letters.”
Callum’s jaw tightens.“It’s absolute.”
She flips the page, anger quickening her movements.
“Money,” she says, voice rough.“It reduces him to money.”
Callum scans.“It reduces him torisk management.”
The words sting because they’re true.This isn’t just heartbreak.It’s a legal solution to a messy human being.
Isla turns another page, eyes burning.
There it is again: consequences, remedies, and enforcement.The kind of language that feels like handcuffs.
