So here is what we actually did, and it took two lawyers and three months and it was entirely her design.

Child support was set at the Texas guideline amount, calculated by a third party from my actual net resources, and entered as an order in a court.

Not a generous figure.

The guideline figure.

I argued for more and she refused, and the reason she gave is the sharpest thing anybody said to me in that whole year:

“A guideline amount is a legal fact.

A generous amount is a favor.

I’m not raising him on a favor that can be withdrawn in an argument.”

Medical, dental and school expenses split, in the order, with a mechanism.

And an irrevocable trust for Beto, funded by me, that she does not control and I do not control, with an independent trustee, distributing for education from eighteen and the balance at twenty-five.