And I found that I had lost nothing but a bill.

Chapter 15 — Get Out

“Get out, Daniel,” I said.

“Mari—”

“Get out of my office.” He gathered the pages of his own exposure with shaking hands.

“Are you,” he asked, at the door, “are you going to press charges?” And Paula answered before I could.

“That depends entirely,” she said, “on your cooperation with the divorce settlement and the financial restitution agreement.” Daniel walked out looking utterly broken, and I understood, watching him go, that he was not broken because he had lost his wife; he still did not grasp the emotional weight of that, and perhaps never would.

He was broken because he had lost the safety net, the endless cushion of my money that had shielded him, for four years, from ever having to face the consequences of his own uselessness.