Chapter 14 - Room 1708 Became Just a Number
Our divorce took thirteen months.
I kept the house after refinancing under terms reached through the property division.
Not because I “won.”
Because the numbers worked.
The HELOC issue was accounted for.
Ethan retained an interest in his Nashville business subject to the overall settlement.
Some Meridian compensation was treated differently from the way he had hoped.
Other portions required more nuanced analysis.
Nobody walked away with everything.
Lauren’s divorce continued separately.
She and Ethan lasted another nine months after both marriages formally ended.
Then their business relationship became strained.
Money.
Control.
Travel.
Exactly the things they once believed would become easy once their spouses stopped being “problems.”
I felt no triumph when they separated.
By then I barely cared.
One afternoon Grace and I drove downtown for her physical therapy after a volleyball injury.
Our parking garage ticket read:
1708
She stared.
Then looked at me.
We both laughed.
Not hysterically.
Not bitterly.
May you like
Just because a number that once felt radioactive had finally become parking validation.
That was healing too.
