Over the next four months, the whole edifice of the Sterlings’ life came down, piece by piece, with the slow inevitability of a foreclosure.

Faced with the forensic ledgers, the digital records of the wire transfers, and the text threads documenting his own participation in the cover-up, Luca did the only rational thing left to him: he stopped fighting.

He agreed to a settlement.

He surrendered his entire share of our joint liquid assets.

He agreed to pay full financial restitution for the diverted funds.

And he signed a clean, uncontested divorce, ending our marriage on paper as completely as his thumbs-up emoji had ended it in fact.