Chapter 11: The Divorce
The divorce proceedings moved with the efficiency of a case that contained very little genuine dispute over assets.
Garrick’s attorney attempted, briefly, to argue for a share of the property based on the years of marriage and the appearance of joint ownership. Elena dismantled the argument with the trust documents, the purchase records, and the complete absence of Garrick’s name on any meaningful title. The monthly transfers were presented as gifts I had chosen to give and had every legal right to discontinue. There was no joint business. There was no co-mingled fortune. There was only a man who had lived well on resources he never controlled, and a mother who had spent freely from a well that had never belonged to her.
Garrick requested a private meeting before the final hearing. I agreed to ten minutes in Elena’s conference room, door open, attorneys present.
He looked smaller than I remembered. The tailored confidence he had worn like armor was gone.
“I don’t understand why you let it go on so long,” he said. “If you had the power the entire time, why endure the things my mother said? Why endure me?”
I considered the question honestly.
“Because I kept hoping that one day you would defend me without being forced,” I answered. “That hope was my mistake. Not the money. Not the house. The hope.”
May you like
He had no reply.
The divorce was finalized three weeks later. I took back my name. I kept every asset that had always been mine. Garrick left the courthouse with the modest accounts that were truly his and the public knowledge that the life he had displayed for years had been built on someone else’s foundation.
