Chapter 199: The Breakup Fee

Freya found the old note by accident.

It was buried in a folder of early financial plans from her first months after awakening.

SELL BAGS.

BUILD INCOME.

HELP LOUIS RECOVER.

LEAVE AFTER HE'S STABLE.

NEGOTIATE FAIR BREAKUP FEE.

She laughed so loudly Louis came into the office.

"What?"

Freya handed him the page.

He read it.

His eyebrows rose.

"You made a business plan for divorcing me."

"I was practical."

"You estimated a breakup fee."

"I didn't know how rich you'd become again."

"I was already rich."

"Secretly."

Louis sat across from her.

"How much were you expecting?"

Freya looked at the number.

It seemed embarrassingly small now.

She covered it with her hand.

"No."

"Freya."

"Absolutely not."

Louis tried to take the paper.

She pulled it away.

A ridiculous struggle followed until the page tore slightly.

Both froze.

Then Freya started laughing again.

Louis eventually got the number.

He stared.

"That's insulting."

"I thought you were rebuilding from nothing!"

"You valued three years of marriage at this?"

"It was a preliminary estimate."

Louis looked personally offended on behalf of his fictional future fortune.

That evening, he transferred money into Freya's account.

She saw the notification.

The amount matched her old breakup-fee estimate exactly.

Description: FINAL SETTLEMENT.

Freya marched downstairs.

"Louis."

He was waiting, visibly pleased with himself.

She transferred it back.

Description: DIVORCE REJECTED.

His phone buzzed.

He looked at the screen and laughed.

Then he sent one dollar.

Description: COUNTEROFFER.

Freya sent it back.

Description: GET LOST.

The exchange continued until their bank's fraud system temporarily flagged the repeated transfers.

Derek heard about it.

Unfortunately, so did Mia.

Freya threatened everyone involved.

Later, she placed the old financial plan in their memory box beside the lease and supermarket receipt.

The breakup fee had once been genuinely important to her.

It represented an exit.

A guarantee that staying with Louis temporarily would not trap her forever.

She did not mock that version of herself.

Freya had needed the idea of leaving before she could understand that staying was also a choice.

Louis came up behind her.

"Still open to negotiation?"

"No."

"Inflation?"

"No."

"Equity?"

Freya turned.

"The husband is too expensive to get rid of."

Louis smiled.

"Good."

She kissed him.

The old plan remained in the box.

Not because it predicted anything.

Because it showed how far the story had moved from the ending Freya once expected.

Their bank eventually called to confirm the strange sequence of tiny transfers was legitimate. Freya had to explain that she and her husband were arguing about a hypothetical divorce settlement from years earlier. The silence from the bank representative became one of Louis's favorite memories.

Freya recorded the facts separately from her assumptions and continued with the next practical step. That habit had become one of the strongest protections she possessed. A dramatic explanation could wait; evidence could not. Louis understood the difference, and together they refused to let uncertainty turn ordinary decisions into reactions to a story neither of them had chosen.

Freya recorded the facts separately from her assumptions and continued with the next practical step. That habit had become one of the strongest protections she possessed. A dramatic explanation could wait; evidence could not. Louis understood the difference, and together they refused to let uncertainty turn ordinary decisions into reactions to a story neither of them had chosen.

Freya recorded the facts separately from her assumptions and continued with the next practical step. That habit had become one of the strongest protections she possessed. A dramatic explanation could wait; evidence could not. Louis understood the difference, and together they refused to let uncertainty turn ordinary decisions into reactions to a story neither of them had chosen.