The lien held for eleven months. Their attorney tried three times to have it dissolved and could not, because I had kept every invoice, every permit, and every payment record in a folder from the first week. They settled for the full amount plus fees. Callum did not contest the divorce.
His mother wrote to me afterward. She said Rowan had pushed it and the rest of them had gone along, and she asked whether I might reconsider the family, not the marriage. I answered kindly and said no.
I still live in the condo. I painted the kitchen a colour Callum would have called impractical. Last spring I bought the unit next door and rented it out, and the deed has one name on it.
I did not lose a home that morning. I found out I had never stopped having one, and that no one gets to charge me rent for occupying my own life.
