Sofia wept through most of the session. Miguel did not comfort her, but he did not punish her in front of Teresa either. For the first three weeks, Sofia slept in the primary bedroom and Miguel remained in the guest room. They functioned as co-parents with a formality that made Lucia nervous at first. Miguel drove her to school, attended two soccer practices he would normally have missed, fixed the loose latch on her desk, and learned that she preferred strawberry yogurt only if the fruit pieces were small. These were tiny facts, but each one accused him gently of how much he had not known while assuming money and phone calls kept him present.
Miguel also called his offshore supervisor. He asked whether a shore-based assignment was possible after the next rotation. The supervisor, Rick Hanley, was surprised. Miguel had spent twelve years building seniority offshore and was on track for another promotion. A land-based reliability role in Houston would pay less, perhaps twenty percent less depending on overtime, and would involve office politics Miguel openly disliked. Rick told him to think carefully before rearranging a career because of a bad month at home.
"It's been more than a bad month," Miguel said. He did not explain further.
Sofia's business also came under scrutiny, though not because Miguel demanded punishment. Daniel Mercer handled insurance accounts for three of her clients and had introduced her to one homebuilder that now represented almost fifteen percent of annual revenue. Continuing any business relationship with him would undermine the no-contact boundary. Sofia transferred the accounts to another broker and disclosed the conflict to the builder without describing the affair in detail. She lost one small contract and kept the larger one. The financial cost was uncomfortable but survivable.
More painful was the social cost.