I want to be honest about the limits of what I had done, because I am a precise man and precision matters.

Cruelty and fraud and assault do not magically rewrite the statutes of property law; a divorce is still a divorce, and Wendy was still entitled, under the law, to her fair share of the genuine marital assets, and she received it.

But her crimes gave me two things the law does not usually grant.

They gave me bulletproof evidence and absolute leverage.

And more than that — the single most important thing — the hundred and eighty-six thousand dollars she had stolen from my mother had never been a marital asset in the first place.

It was never hers to fight over.