Not because of what she meant.
Because of what it implied.
Maybe leaving had caused this.
I caught the thought immediately.
“No.”
She looked surprised.
“I regret trusting the wrong information.”
“But I don’t regret the work.”
I had built something in Kuala Lumpur.
A real project.
A professional achievement.
I refused to let Corbin turn those years into wasted time simply because he had misused what I sent home.
That distinction saved something in me.
I began working with my company’s Chicago office temporarily.
Then they offered me a permanent role overseeing regional projects.
I accepted.
Not because I wanted to stay near Corbin.
Because Chicago was still my city too.
People abandon places too quickly after heartbreak.
Sometimes staying is another form of reclamation.
The West Loop condo became the center of the property fight.
Corbin wanted it sold.
Audrey wanted a disproportionate adjustment because of the refinance and disputed spending.
The Evanston condo complicated everything.
Mara’s attorney agreed it should be treated as part of the marital financial analysis.
Corbin argued it was an investment.
Again.
Always investment.
Audrey asked him in deposition whether investments typically house the investor’s romantic partner and biological child without standard rent.
He did not enjoy that question.
I did.
Only slightly.
Then came the deposition transcript.
I did not attend.
Audrey recommended against it.
But I read the transcript later.
Question: Did your wife know you had a child with Ms. Ellison?
Answer: No.
Question: Did your wife know you were supporting Ms. Ellison financially?
Answer: No.
Question: Did your wife know you had refinanced the marital condo?
Answer: I believed she had authorized refinancing through the power of attorney.
Question: Did she know the cash proceeds were being used toward the Evanston property?
Long pause.
Answer: No.
Question: Did she know you had created a college savings account for Theo?
Answer: No.
Question: Did she know you had prepared a trust naming Theo and future children as beneficiaries of the West Loop condo?
Answer: No.
Page after page.
No.
No.
No.
A marriage measured in withheld information.
Then one question stopped me.
Question: Why did you encourage your wife to remain overseas after the original eighteen-month contract ended?
Long pause.
Answer: The money was good.
I read that sentence five times.
Not because he had admitted sending me away.
He hadn’t.
Because it reduced three years of my life to a resource.
The money was good.
Not Sariah’s career was important.
Not we had goals.
Not the project mattered.
The money was good.
I closed the transcript.
Then cried for the first time since O’Hare.
