Mark missed a payment on the smaller of the two vehicle loans in March.

The lender contacted both parties listed on the account, and the notice reached me at the apartment just as I was preparing Tommy’s lunch.

My hands went cold.

There it was, the precise risk Sarah had warned me about: even a carefully negotiated divorce couldn’t force a creditor to pretend an existing borrower had disappeared.

I called Sarah instead of Mark.

She directed me to obtain the account history and preserve the notice.