She could not have both.
And the moment she saw it in those terms, it was not a hard choice, because she had stopped, somewhere in the last eight months, being a woman whose primary aim was to make Weston pay, and become again what she had always more deeply been: a mother whose primary aim was to get her children to solid ground as fast as possible.
Taking the settlement was not weakness, and it was not forgiveness.
It was triage.
She had the leverage of a felony in her pocket, and she spent it, deliberately, not on the maximum punishment of her ex-husband but on the maximum protection of her children — the house in trust, the cabin recovered, the support tripled, the visitation enforced.
She traded the satisfaction of his ruin for the security of their future.
She has never once regretted the trade.
Their first meeting was at a downtown law office.
Nadia’s mother was already there, stiff and furious, and agreed to sign the papers rescinding the cabin transfer only on the condition that her legal fees be covered.
“Weston pays for that,” Harriet said, firm.
“I won’t spend a single dollar recovering what was stolen from me.”
“I’ll cover it,” Weston said, without hesitation.
Chapter 22 — Every Page
Harriet read every page.