Chapter 8
The divorce took months.
Daniel tried to delay everything.
He claimed I had abandoned him.
He claimed I had hidden money.
He claimed I was manipulating his ex-girlfriends.
But evidence does not care about charm.
The judge saw the bank records.
The fraudulent accounts.
The messages.
The recordings.
The threats.
My marriage was annulled based on fraud.
The judge ordered Daniel to repay what he had stolen from me.
He could not repay the time.
He could not repay the fear.
But the legal record would always show the truth.
I had not failed as a wife.
I had survived a predator.
After court, Judith tried to speak to me.
She stood outside the courthouse crying.
“I didn’t know,” she said.
I believed she had not known everything.
But I also knew she had taught Daniel that women should bend around men’s cruelty.
“You saw enough,” I told her.
She covered her mouth.
May you like
I walked away.
I did not need her apology to heal.
