When my son-in-law asked for a divorce, he looked at my daughter and said, “I want the house, the cars, the bank account… except our son,” and while his lawyer smiled as if he had already won, mine begged me to fight, but I just clutched the purse where I carried a document he had forgotten years ago, and told my daughter, “Give him everything.”

When the business struggled due to his poor choices, he blamed the market and his partners instead of taking any personal responsibility. When he finally rebuilt the company, he no longer looked at his wife as a partner but as someone who had overstayed her welcome in his house.

When another woman appeared in the picture, he did not even have the decency to hide the affair from the community. My daughter endured the humiliation for the sake of Toby because she wanted to protect his childhood and avoid admitting she had chosen the wrong man.

She held onto that miserable hope many women cling to when a man begins to destroy them, believing the person she once knew would eventually return. However, some men never return because they simply decide to take off the mask they were wearing for years.

The first time Mallory told me through her tears that Garrett wanted a divorce, I naively thought he would at least try to be fair. He didn’t just want to leave with his freedom because he wanted the house where my daughter had rocked her son through many fevers.