About you pitching to my division also. No. Life’s hilarious like that. Miles I l y l y l y l y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y y l l y l y l y l y l y l e. I appreciate the apology. I do. Therapy is good. Self-awareness is healthy. I’m genuinely glad you’re working on yourself. I’m in it, too. No sarcasm, no edge, just truth.
But here’s the thing. I don’t need your apology anymore. I needed it 5 years ago. Now I’m good. Really, genuinely good. I know I don’t deserve forgiveness. This isn’t about forgiveness. I interrupted gently. I forgave you years ago because holding grudges is exhausting and I had better things to do. This is about relevance.
You’re not relevant to my life anymore, Leia. Not in anger, not in regret, not even in vindication. You’re just someone I used to know. Her breathing was shaky. I miss you. I miss us. The realest before everything got complicated. That has never existed, I said, watching a hawk circle over the field.
You love the idea of me until reality didn’t match your ambitions. I loved the idea of you until I realized you loved validation more than partnership. We were never the people we thought we were together. So that’s it. 5 years of marriage, just nothing. Not nothing. A chapter, one that taught me what I don’t want and showed me what I’m capable of.
I learned from it, grew from it, and moved on. You should, too. I don’t know how to move on from this. Start by stopping calling ex-husbands looking for closure. Closure comes from inside, not from the people who watched you self-destruct. I finished my coffee. Take care of yourself, Leia. Really? I hope you find whatever you’re looking for, but you won’t find it here.
Miles, goodbye, Leia. I hung up, blocked the number again, walked back inside where my calendar showed meetings with Pentagon officials, a foundation scholarship ceremony, and dinner plans with Terrara’s team to celebrate our latest patent approval. My phone buzzed. Henry, saw the Google news. You magnificent bastard. Drinks tonight.
Mant Pentagon briefing and scholarship event tomorrow. Henry, you’re living the dream and I’m insanely jealous. Tomorrow works. I poured another coffee, opened my laptop, reviewed the day’s agenda. Somewhere in Austin, Leia was probably processing that conversation, maybe crying, maybe angry, maybe finally understanding that some bridges don’t just burn.
They get demolished and replaced with superighways going the opposite direction. And here I was, not bitter, not triumphant, just busy building things that mattered with people who got it. I glanced at Jesse Rodriguez’s email, still pinned on my wall. Read the last line again. I’m not just working here. I’m building the future.
Yeah, kid. We all are. Some people chase revenge. Some chase redemption. Some chase closure from people who can’t give it. I chased problems worth solving and let everything else fade into background noise that couldn’t touch me anymore. The Texas morning was clear and beautiful. My coffee was perfect. My company had just made me a billionaire several times over.
My ex-wife was someone else’s cautionary.
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