The public-library garden was almost empty when Maya met Salma for what they had already agreed would be their last scheduled conversation.
Maya brought only the portion of the mediation schedule that affected funds tied to 4C. No family notes, no claims about Omar's motives, no private messages beyond what Salma had already authorized.
“The dispute is now with Omar over the shared-fund accounting,” Maya said. “I am not making a claim to your entire property interest.”
Salma read the scope note twice. “That matters to me.”
“I know.”
Salma then told her she had decided to sell her share of 4C and leave the arrangement with Omar. The decision, she said, had begun before mediation and was not an invitation for Maya to ask about price, buyer or their future relationship.
Maya felt curiosity rise and deliberately let it pass. “I don't need those details. I only need the documents you've already provided to remain verifiable after the sale.”
“They will. I'll keep an email address for document verification.”
That was the only continuing connection the evidence process required.
They spoke for several minutes about rumors in the estate. Some people apparently believed Maya was trying to take 4C from Salma.
Maya laughed once, exhausted. “That is exactly the story I was trying not to create.”
“Are you going to correct everyone?”
“No. If the rumor enters a formal process, I'll correct it there. I don't have the energy to litigate myself in every corridor.”
She gave Salma a copy of the scope note: financial dispute with Omar and the shared-account reconciliation; no general ownership claim against Salma. It was not a legal release. It was simply a record of the line Maya had chosen not to cross.
Salma folded the page into her bag, then reached for a small pouch.
“There is something of yours,” she said.
She placed an old keychain in Maya's palm.
Maya recognized the scratches before she consciously recognized the object. It had once held the key to the marital home. Her first memory was not Omar. It was Amina at nine, turning the key the wrong way again and again until the metal tag scratched against the lock.
“When did he leave this with you?” Maya asked.
The question escaped before she could stop it.
Salma met her eyes. “Do you want the answer for the money file?”
Maya closed her fingers around the keychain.
“No.”
The answer cost her something. The timing might have fed every unanswered question about the relationship, but it would not change the factual schedule, the repayment balance or Amina's graduation dinner.
Maya put the keychain in a different pouch from the evidence folder. Later she would write a source note that described it as a personal item returned by Salma and explicitly excluded it from the financial evidence map.
They agreed that Salma would leave the process except for verification of documents already supplied. There would be no forced friendship. No ceremonial forgiveness. Their interests had intersected because Omar had given them different information and because shared funds touched 4C. That intersection now had limits.
Amina called while Maya was still in the garden to confirm the dinner reservation. Maya answered immediately and did not mention where she was or who sat across from her. Not every activity connected to the dispute needed to become information her daughter carried.
After the call, Salma said, “I thought when you first contacted me that you wanted to destroy me.”
“I thought I might want to,” Maya said. “Then the records changed the question.”
“Do you hate me?”
Maya considered it. “I don't know you well enough for that to be useful.”
Salma gave a tired laugh. “That sounds like something from Kendi.”
“Maybe I have become unbearable.”
“Maybe precise.”
When Salma left, Maya remained on the bench with the keychain in her hand. A couple argued loudly beneath a tree nearby. Months earlier that sound would have pulled Maya straight back into her marriage. Now her first thoughts were of Amina's dinner and the independent review scheduled for the next morning.
The past had not disappeared. It had simply stopped becoming the lens for every new room.
Salma was now outside the evidence process except for documents already verified. Before leaving, she returned Maya's old keychain from the marital home.