Olivia had been cruel, but Grant was the one who promised a home he didn’t own and packed the clothes of the woman who lived in it.

That evening I found a message from an unfamiliar number.

A photograph showed Grant standing at a restaurant with Olivia six months earlier.

The sender wrote that Grant had told employees of his consulting firm he was already divorced.

I forwarded it to David without responding.

The evidence of an affair mattered emotionally, but I was learning not to confuse every painful discovery with a legal strategy.

David reminded me that the custody and property proceedings had their own standards and that our goal was accurate, supported information.