Chapter 16
One week after the wedding, I officially filed for divorce.
Elena handled everything. I sat in her office and signed the papers with shaking hands while Mia played in the waiting area with one of the paralegals.
When I put the pen down, I felt like I could finally breathe again.
It was done.
Or at least, it had begun.
Elena looked at me with a small, encouraging smile.
“You did the right thing,” she said. “Now we fight.”
The next few weeks were a blur of paperwork, meetings, and court filings. David tried to fight for primary custody at first, but the evidence from the wedding — along with witness statements and the protective order — worked in our favor. The judge granted me temporary custody of Mia and ordered David to stay away from both of us except for supervised visitation.
Margaret tried to file her own motion claiming I was an unfit mother, but it was quickly dismissed when Elena presented the videos and statements from the wedding.
Slowly, the tide was turning.
But it wasn’t easy.
David’s family continued to spread rumors. Some of our old friends stopped talking to me. I had to start from scratch financially. I got a part-time job at a local bookstore just to have some income while the divorce proceedings continued.
There were nights when I cried myself to sleep, wondering if I had made the biggest mistake of my life.
But every morning, I woke up to Mia’s face, and I remembered why I was doing this.
She was smiling more now.
She was sleeping better.
May you like
She wasn’t walking on eggshells anymore.
And that made every hard day worth it.
