Chapter 13 - THE DIVORCE TERMS
Our divorce became less dramatic once custody stopped being used as a threat.
Property:
House jointly titled.
Mortgage.
Savings.
Retirement.
Cassian’s family-company shares largely premarital and held through separate structures.
My design-consulting business mostly separate with marital earnings accounted.
No secret offshore fortune.
No one needed to destroy the other.
I asked to keep the house temporarily for Oren’s stability.
Cassian agreed.
Final buyout or sale later.
Child support calculated normally.
No alimony requested because my income supported me.
Then custody.
Temporary:
Primary with me.
Cassian supervised twice weekly.
We agreed to review after six months of treatment.
No Sybil.
Merritt only if clinician recommends and I consent or court orders.
I did not want permanent unilateral veto forever.
That could become another power problem.
So order gave court/clinician pathway.
Good.
Then Cassian asked:
“Can I have phone calls with Oren?”
Dr. Kent supported short scheduled calls.
First:
“Hi, buddy.”
“Hi.”
“What did you do?”
“Paint.”
“What?”
“Green.”
“What did you paint?”
“Green.”
Cassian laughed.
Normal.
Then Oren asked:
“Are you still scared of Grandma?”
Cassian went quiet.
“I’m less scared.”
“Why?”
“Because I learned I can say no.”
Four-year-old wisdom test:
“Say no.”
Cassian smiled.
“No.”
Oren giggled.
That became their silly game for a while.
No.
No.
No.
A word Ione had treated as defiance became practice.
Then I filed an amended divorce agreement requiring co-parenting decisions to be direct.
No parental decision routed through Ione, Merritt, or Halbrook family office.
No grandparent serving as messenger.
Cassian agreed.
Why put obvious boundaries in writing?
Because obvious had failed.
Then I discovered my own dependency.
For years, I had let Cassian handle taxes.
Insurance.
School savings.
Not criminal.
Convenient.
Now I learned.
Not because all marriages should separate everything.
Because I wanted direct knowledge.
I found no additional secret children.
No mistress.
No hidden criminal debt.
Just Avery? That's another story, no. Here no.
Cassian’s secrets were:
Debt.
Family pressure.
Custody preparation.
Enough.
Then Ione’s trial date set.
Six months away.
Prosecution planned:
My testimony.
Dining-room video.
Oren’s forensic statement through protected procedures where admissible—possibly no live testimony due age and confrontation rules. Better rely on my eyewitness/video; child may not need testify.
Merritt testimony under plea.
Cassian testimony.
Rebecca Sloan.
Dr. Shore.
Forensic document examiner.
Defense would argue:
Temporary restraint.
No serious injury.
Maternal overreaction.
Cassian’s own belief Oren needed structure.
No intention to harm.
The trial would not decide whether Ione was a monster.
It would decide statutory acts.
Then Ione sent a permitted message through her attorney to Cassian:
I forgive you.
He stared at it.
“For what?”
I knew.
For testifying.
For separating.
For saying no.
She still believed his boundary required her forgiveness.
May you like
Cassian did not reply.
That was progress.
