“I’m looking for a fair resolution, Natalie,” he said, smooth as ever.

“Theo is not a piece of furniture you can use as leverage!”

“You work sixty hours a week,” he said.

“My mother can raise him full-time.”

“The exact same mother,” I said, “who taught him to lie to cover up your affair.” He hung up on me.

And I sat with my attorney that afternoon, and she took the proposal, and slid it into a red folder, and looked at me with a hard and steady calm.

“Save everything,” she said.