When he eventually had a serious partner, we established ground rules through co-parenting counseling.

No surprises.

No making Chloe keep secrets.

No using the new partner as messenger.

Grant, to his credit, followed them.

That sentence would have infuriated me two years earlier.

Time did not make his betrayal smaller.

It made my world larger than it.

PART 6 — THE DIVORCE DID NOT GIVE ME EVERYTHING

The divorce took fourteen months.