coffee that was brown in only the most technical sense. We methodically worked through property, retirement, the home, cars, and insurance, without speeches or slammed tables, before reaching the affair spending.
Paul studied the itemized sheet. Eventually he told his client, “Daniel, these are difficult to dispute.”
Daniel looked at me instead of the numbers. Melissa noticed. The reimbursement entered our settlement calculations, as did the separate Hawthorne charge. He did not contest either.
By then Rachel had forced him out of the apartment that had always been hers. Lily mentioned that news without prompting while we folded laundry on my couch.
“Dad’s staying with Uncle Mark for a while,” she said.
“Okay.”
“You don’t care?”
“I care that he is safe.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know.”
She folded a towel. “Rachel called me.”
“Why?”
“She wanted to know if Dad had always been jealous.”
“What did you
