Terms of Acquisition

Victoria has spent eight years building a life with Julian, surviving long distance, the pandemic and poverty together. Then, over dinner, he asks what would happen if they stopped loving each other, and she realises she already knows about the girl he has promised a future to. At the hospital, where she has just received a frightening diagnosis, she sees Julian with that girl, his arm bandaged, and hears the same promise meant for someone else.

She tracks the girl to a university campus and watches her kindness toward a homeless woman, then meets Julian in a coffee shop. He admits his love for Victoria has become family rather than passion, and offers to stay married out of responsibility alone. She asks about the girl and receives no clear answer.

As evening falls, Julian runs to the girl waiting across the street, and Victoria recognises the tender words he once used to comfort her. She agrees to file for divorce, certain that what she believed was her life has ended.