His lawyer began listing the assets my husband expected to keep. The list sounded like a receipt read aloud at a grocery store. The house. The investment accounts. The retirement savings. The business income. The vacation property his parents had helped him purchase years earlier.
My husband leaned back with a faint confident smile resting at the edge of his mouth. I had seen that smile many times before. I saw it when he joked at dinner parties about me not understanding business while guests laughed politely. I saw it in our kitchen when he said the finances were none of my concern. I even saw it the night our daughter was born when he told me he had an important meeting to attend.
The judge listened without interrupting. She wrote notes slowly on a yellow pad. Her expression remained calm and unreadable.
When the lawyer finished speaking he placed both hands flat on the table and said with professional confidence, “Your Honor my client has been the primary financial provider in the marriage and we request the court approve the final division as submitted.”
The judge raised one hand gently.
“One moment,” she said.