Brandon kept his primary business interests, subject to a significant payout, and I received my lawful share of our marital property, along with independent resources of my own for the first time in a decade.

Our final parenting arrangement reflected the plain fact that we both remained our children’s parents.

I never tried to erase Brandon from Lucas and Amelia’s lives, and I want to be clear that this was not weakness or generosity of spirit; it was simply that my goal had never been revenge.

I did not want to destroy him.

I wanted stability, and clear boundaries, and the ordinary freedom to disagree with a man without my children’s transportation and medical care being turned into leverage against me.

Cynthia, in time, drifted so far out of the borders of my life that I genuinely stopped knowing, or caring, whether she and Brandon were still together.