I reached up with my left hand and touched the plain band of my wedding ring where it sat loose on my knuckle.

“Give up the house and the nursery?”

“Let them think they’ve won every last penny until they’re under oath,” Martha said.

She tapped the legal pad again with the fountain pen, leaving a tiny dot of blue ink on the yellow paper.

“If you fight the property split this morning, Julian’s lawyer will ask for a ninety-day continuance to appraise the equipment,” Martha said.

“That gives Clara three months to empty whatever personal accounts she opened.”