Chapter 13 - I DIDN’T GET AN ANNULMENT OR A REVENGE FORTUNEI filed for divorce.
People kept asking whether I could get an annulment because the marriage lasted less than a day before I left.
That is not how annulment works simply because a wedding becomes disastrous.
We had entered a legal marriage.
So we ended it legally.
The prenup simplified property issues.
My premarital assets remained mine under its terms.
Grant retained his.
There were shared wedding expenses to unwind.
Joint gifts.
Deposits.
Tax questions.
Ordinary mess.
The cake video mattered to the circumstances of separation.
It did not magically transfer Grant’s property to me.
I did not want it to.
Kyle contacted me once.
An apology.
He wrote:
I thought it was a joke until I saw your face. I should have stopped filming and helped.
I answered:
Yes.
Nothing else.
Eleanor never apologized fully.
Her closest version was:
“I wish the reception hadn’t gotten out of hand.”
As if a wedding reception climbed out of a cage by itself.
Robert did better.
He called six months later.
“I used your balance sheet in ways I should have explained more clearly.”
“Yes.”
“I convinced myself disclosure to the bank was enough because nothing legally bound you.”
“Yes.”
“I was wrong.”
That mattered.
Then he said:
“Grant wanted to prove he could finish what I started.”
I almost told him that was his problem.
Instead:
“I know.”
Robert sounded tired.
“I may have made it his problem.”
May you like
That was probably true too.
Family businesses manufacture inherited fears as efficiently as inherited wealth.
