There was still paperwork.

There were still disagreements.

But the purpose of the work faced forward.

That made it easier to get up in the morning.

Chapter 61: Allison Tells the Truth

Allison provided her final statement to the investigators in January.

She admitted that she had shared credentials with Preston against company policy.

She described the hotel stays, the nighttime requests, and her decision to conceal the relationship from me.

She maintained that she had not knowingly redirected payments.

Investigators compared her account with device logs and travel records.

Some details matched.

Others could not be independently confirmed.

Allison’s employer terminated her for violating access and confidentiality rules, separate from the unresolved financial allegations.

She later accepted a clerical job at a medical supply company.

I learned those facts through the divorce process, not through private conversations with her.

Our divorce was slower and less dramatic than I had expected.

We divided household items and negotiated the sale of the house.

We did not fight about the anniversary watch.

I kept it in a drawer until moving day.

Allison asked once whether she could explain what had drawn her to Preston.

I said she already had.

What I needed from her was an acknowledgment that choosing an affair and exposing confidential information were separate acts, and both had hurt people.

She said she understood.

I could not know whether she did.

We signed the agreement in a room decorated with framed photographs of smiling families.

The clerk called our names.

We stood, signed, and returned to separate cars.

I had imagined divorce as a final argument.

It felt instead like closing a door that had been open too long in winter.

Chapter 62: The Box in the Closet

Months after the divorce I unpacked a cardboard box I had avoided since leaving the house.

Inside were photographs, old airline tickets, a cracked coffee mug, and the anniversary watch.

I spread the objects across my kitchen table.

Some memories were kind.

Some were painful.

I did not need to choose one category for all of them.

I found a photograph of Allison painting the first sign for Calder Building Services.

She wore an oversized shirt and had blue paint on her nose.

We had been happy that afternoon.

I remembered that without denying what followed.

I put the photograph in a plain envelope labeled Past.

The watch went into a separate drawer.

I gave the cracked mug to the recycling bin.

The decisions were small and ordinary.