We are not going to be clever.

We are going to be right, and patient, and on the record, and that beats clever every single time.” I nodded, and even as I did, a wave of something like panic rose up in me, because saying yes to her was saying yes to the truth.

This was real now.

It had a lawyer and a plan and a stack of evidence.

My marriage was over, and I had just agreed, out loud, to end it.