Chapter 4 — The Pen That Was Listening

He reached into his jacket, pulled out a thick folder, and threw it down on the bed in front of me.

Divorce papers.

And clipped to them, an agreement in which I surrendered my rights to the house, to our joint accounts, to any future claim on his company — everything, in exchange for nothing.

“Sign it all tonight,” he said, in the flat, cold voice he used when he believed he had already won, “or I will bury you in so many lawsuits you won’t be able to make rent on a room anywhere in this state.”

I did not cry in front of them.