They fought about money, in-laws, schedules, and once about a dishwasher purchase with such intensity that Lucia, then thirteen, came into the kitchen and asked whether they needed Dr. Ben again. Miguel laughed so hard the argument broke. Sofia laughed too.
They did return to therapy for three sessions that year, not because of infidelity but because they had learned maintenance was easier than collapse. Daniel Mercer never returned to their lives. Years after the affair ended, Miguel encountered him unexpectedly at a regional business luncheon. Daniel was standing near a coffee station, older, slightly heavier, talking to two men from a brokerage firm. Their eyes met. For a second Miguel felt the old rush of heat, astonishing in its persistence.
Daniel stepped away from the group. "Miguel." Miguel waited. "I owe you an apology in person," Daniel said.
"You owed me better choices before an apology." Daniel nodded. "That's fair."
Miguel studied him and realized he had imagined this encounter too many times to count. In some versions he shouted. In others he hit him. In others Daniel begged. Reality was smaller. Two middle-aged men standing beside a stainless coffee urn in a hotel conference room.