He Spent Two Years Mocking How Tired I Looked While I Paid Every Bill. He Never Mentioned Whose Name Was on the Mortgage

He wanted a spectacle.

He had spent two years turning me into a spectacle for other people’s amusement.

So I would let him keep his party, and his audience, and his big fortieth-birthday stage — and I would walk up onto it, in front of every single person whose opinion he cared about, and I would give the performance of my life.

I know how that sounds — theatrical, maybe even cruel, choosing a public stage when a lawyer’s letter would have done the legal work in private.

I thought about that.