Gabriel told me I was making a mistake.
I told him the only mistake I had made was leaving town without installing a camera in the guest room.
Patricia filed the divorce petition the following week.
Gabriel contested nothing of substance. His attorney reviewed the postnuptial agreement, the property deed, and the documentation I had assembled, which included photographs of the basement, the overturned bucket, the deflated air mattress, and a written statement from my mother describing the four days in language so restrained and factual that it read like a medical report rather than a complaint.
His attorney advised him to settle.
Gabriel settled. He received his personal belongings, his vehicle, and whatever he had accumulated independently during the marriage. He did not receive the house. He did not receive a share of the equity. He did not receive the guest room he had converted into his personal gym.
