After that call, Nina sent all family communication straight to her office.
In the end, Eleanor accepted a sale arranged through the loan servicer. Once the mortgage and the back taxes and my loan were all paid off, she had just enough left over to rent a small apartment outside Fredericksburg.
She called it a humiliation.
But for the first time in years, she was living on an amount she could actually afford.
Four months after the reunion, Richard and I sat down for divorce mediation in a conference room in Richmond.
He walked in with two attorneys, one on each side, like bodyguards.
Bankruptcy hadn’t softened his sense of entitlement one bit. He demanded half the value of my investment account. Continued health insurance. Spousal support. And full ownership of the house in Richmond. My house. With the magnolia tree.
The house I’d bought two years before I met him.
