The little bit she was able to get from the friend she was staying with limited her to hiring someone that would only file the paperwork for a "no-fault" divorce; each of us was allowed to keep a limited amount of personal and professional property (such as my laptop I used as an engineer), the rest was to be sold, and the money equally divided. Judy literally signed off on the agreement, only to be horrified to learn that it meant almost all of the clothes and other things she'd bought would be sold, too. By that time, I was so sick of all the bullshit that I actually laughed when the auction company hauled off the solid oak dining table and chairs she'd been adamant we "needed", among other things.

With the sale of our house, and the money I got from the property auction, I was able to find a smallish one-bedroom apartment I could afford while I continued my job search; Judy not only managed to spend all of her share in a matter of a couple of months, but got herself kicked out of her friend's home for all her shenanigans — something that I considered eminently fair and appropriate.

Things were starting to turn around in the economy when I heard from Teresa that her husband had stolen several thousands of dollars from the insurance company he worked for, and disappeared — leaving her to try and take care of herself and three kids. It took a while, but she finally found a better-paying job and was able to rent a house for herself and the kids after she had to move out of the one she and her absent husband had been buying.

I continued my job search, and it was just a couple of days after I got notice from the courts and my lawyer that the divorce was final that I got an offer for a new job — in a different city.

When I found out where they wanted to send me, I knew that my life had started to turn around, too — it was the same place that Teresa had moved to. When I called her to give her the good news about the job, the first words out of her mouth were "Congratulations!", immediately followed by "So how soon can you get here?"