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"Thirty days of cohabitation. During that period both parties will engage with a court-appointed counselor, registered and verified within the jurisdiction of this court. Sessions will take place according to the therapist’s schedule, ideally weekly, and attendance is mandatory, not optional. Non-attendance by either party will result in proceedings being suspended indefinitely. These sessions are not an attempt to force a particular outcome. They are a requirement of this court before I will put my signature on any dissolution document."

Behind me Mama makes a sound. Blanca says something that doesn't make it past the first row.

The floor drops out.

"No."

I hear myself say it before I've decided to.

"Señora Alvarez."

"I'm not spending thirty days with that lying, cheating pig." My voice is shaking and I don't care. "With all due respect, Your Honor, I have spent a year putting myself back together from what he did and you're asking me to go and live with him?"

"Señora Alvarez, I strongly advise you to allow your legal representative to speak on your behalf." Not a flicker. Somehow that makes it worse.

Diego is on his feet, one hand briefly on my arm. "Your Honor, my client is understandably distressed by this development and I ask the court's patience while I take a moment to advise her."

"You have one minute, Señor García."

He turns to me, drops his voice so low it barely exists. "Elena. I understand. But you need to sit down right now and let me handle this or we lose every advantage we walked in here with."

The tears are already on my face. I'm so angry at them, at myself, at the fact that I'm standing here coming apart in front of his family and my mother while he gets to sit there looking remorseful. He doesn't get to be remorseful. You don't get to give someone else the thing your wife couldn't give you and then sit three metres away looking like it costs you something.

I drop back into my chair. Both hands flat on the table. Eyes on the wood grain.

Señor Fuentes is on his feet. "Your Honor, my client has professional obligations that make thirty consecutive days away from Madrid extremely difficult. Señor Alvarez is contracted to Real Madrid for the remainder of his current season and his training schedule requires a transitional period to organize."

Judge Rodriguez looks at him over her glasses in a way that communicates she has heard this argument in every shape it has ever taken.

"How long does your client require?"

"Three weeks, Your Honor. To coordinate with the club and ensure full compliance."

She writes something. "Three weeks is permitted before the thirty-day period commences. The confirmed start date will be served to both parties in writing before the end of this week. Let me be entirely clear. This is not a suggestion. Failure to comply by either party will result in these proceedings being suspended indefinitely."

"There's a house in Cádiz." Jorge's voice, not his lawyer's. "On the beach. It belongs to us both, it's been empty for the past year and it's well away from the press."

People freeze where they are.

Cádiz. The house where I felt, on those particular mornings, like my life was quietly and genuinely good. Before I knew. Before any of it.

That house.

Diego leans close. "It's strategically reasonable, Elena. Away from both families, away from the press. The privacy works in your favor."

There is no such thing as neutral ground when it comes to Jorge. He is in every room we ever shared, and Cádiz is worse than most of them, and I cannot say any of that in this courtroom so I say nothing.

"Señora Alvarez." Judge Rodriguez looks directly at me. "Do you have any objection to the proposed location?"

Diego watching me. Mama watching me. Jorge across the aisle, and I won't look but I can feel it.

"No." Steadier than it has any right to be, my voice.

She writes it down. Closes the folder. "Details will be formalized and served to both parties before the end of the week. I expect full compliance. Court adjourned."

We stand.

And then it is over except that it isn't, which is the whole problem, which is going to keep being the problem for thirty more days in a house I loved before I knew what he was doing in the one we lived in.