Over the following weeks she made me read every settlement draft.

She refused to let me sign anything simply because I trusted her.

She would pause on the dense paragraphs and ask me to explain them in my own words.

It was exhausting, but it taught me how much agency I had been giving away.

When Mark’s attorney finally proposed giving him the property and vehicles, Sarah circled the words subject to debt and asked me whether I understood the consequences.

“Yes,” I said.