I had given, for years, and they had called it their right; now I stopped giving, and they called it an attack.

But it was neither a gift nor an attack.

It was just the end of a mistake.

The judge granted the divorce, entered the plea, sentenced Craig to felony probation, and ordered restitution to me for the medical costs.

He avoided prison on the plea and his clean prior record — but a felony conviction ended his working life as he’d known it, and he knew it.

In the hallway Noreen came at me one last time, screaming that I had set them up, that I’d left them buried in debt, that I was a monster.