“We go to the courthouse at three o’clock and let his attorney serve us in person,” Martha said, writing a time on her calendar pad.

The wall clock in the second-floor hallway of the Jasper County Courthouse read seven minutes past three when Julian’s lawyer came up to us.

He handed Martha a blue cardboard cover holding four stapled sheets marked with an official red county clerk stamp.

“Emergency motion for sole temporary occupancy of the Pine Bluff property and immediate freeze of marital assets,” Martha read aloud.

Julian stood forty feet down the marble hallway near the drinking fountain, his navy suit jacket buttoned neat and square.