Elena thought about the moment Sergio had frozen in the doorway months before.
Back then she had assumed he was shocked by the police, by the complaint, by the half-empty apartment.
But sitting there now, with her coffee warming her hands and the window open to clean air, she understood the deeper truth.
What had stopped him cold was not the sight of what was gone.
It was the sight of a woman he could no longer frighten into surrender.
She took a slow sip, set the cup down, and listened to the quiet of her own home.
Then she opened her laptop and began the rest of her life.