I had just given birth when my husband looked me in the eye and said, “Take the bus home. I’m taking my family to hotpot.” Two hours later, his voice was shaking on the phone: “Claire… what did you do? Everything is gone.”

Elaine, her hands shaking violently, reached out to snatch the papers.

Martin smoothly slid the entire stack out of her reach. “Careful, Mrs. Hayes. Those are merely courtesy copies. The certified originals have already been filed with the federal court.”

Daniel’s face completely collapsed. The reality of his ruin finally crushed him. He sank to his knees beside the hospital bed. “Claire, please, I am begging you. We can fix this privately. We don’t need lawyers. We can figure it out.”

I laughed. A single, sharp sound that echoed strangely in the bright, quiet room.

“Privately?” I asked, looking down at him with a mixture of pity and profound disgust. “Like the time you told your mother I was too plain and boring to ever leave you? Like the time you joked with your golfing buddies that my consulting salary was your early retirement plan? Like when you stood there