“I asked you directly about the missing money. At dinner. In January.”
“You accused me!”
“The records proved the accusation.”
His face went deep red.
“You enjoyed it,” he said. “You enjoyed leaving that envelope where everybody could see it.”
I thought back to the pavilion.
The laughter rolling out across the water. The paper plate held out like an insult dressed up as a joke. The way he’d kept cutting his brisket while he waited for me to sit back down.
Ezoic
“I left it under your plate,” I said, “because I knew that was the only thing at that table you’d actually bother to look at.”
Ezoic
The mediator ended the session.
Three weeks later, Richard accepted the original divorce terms.
I kept my separate property. My house. Every one of my accounts.
He kept his personal belongings, his retirement account, and full responsibility for the debts tied to his own conduct.
