terms. She declined to rush into romance with Miles, resumed studying interior design, and began accepting projects. When Richard’s affair ended and he requested another chance, she refused. Six months after the cruise, her divorce was finalized and her design studio was taking shape. With Lucy’s encouragement, Vivian embraced a future guided by her own ambitions rather than someone else’s choices.
The cruise had initially represented a step away from the life Vivian had known during twenty-two years of marriage. Traveling alone after the divorce placed her in unfamiliar surroundings at a time when many parts of her future were uncertain. Meeting Miles changed that journey again, connecting her present disappointment with a relationship she had not expected to revisit.
Miles’s disappearance thirty years earlier had left its own unanswered questions. His explanation about family fear did not undo the time that had passed, but it gave Vivian a different
