Jasper and Kyle had taken plea deals.

Helena was fighting charges from a place with locked doors and no pearls.

Isabelle had accepted a sentence that included cooperation, probation conditions, and no contact with Maya until her therapist approved it.

The divorce was quiet.

Painful, but quiet.

She signed away custody without a fight.

In the final hearing, Isabelle looked at me across the courtroom and said, “I loved her badly.”

It was the truest thing she had ever said.