While I was giving birth, my husband secretly sold my $3 million house and, when I returned with our baby, handed me $200: “Rent a cheap room and leave.” I looked at the money, laughed, and called my lawyer. He still had no idea he had made a much bigger mistake.

Three days later, Christopher was granted a five-minute phone call from the Dauphin County Judicial Center.

My phone buzzed against the marble counter in the penthouse kitchen. The caller ID displayed: *DAUPHIN COUNTY CORRECTIONAL FACILITY - COLLECT CALL*.

I swiped the screen and put it on speaker.

“Nora?” Christopher’s voice sounded hollow, stripped of every ounce of arrogance. It was the voice of a man broken into splinters. “Nora, please don’t hang up. Please.”

“I’m listening, Christopher,” I said calmly.

“You have to drop the charges. Please. You have to tell the district attorney it was an internal dispute. Gallo’s associates… they came to Brenda’s door yesterday. They threatened to burn her car. I’m in general population, Nora. You have no idea what it’s like in here. They treat me like an animal.”

“You are where your choices put you, Christopher.”

“I did it for us!” he sobbed, his voice cracking into high, desperate wails. “I wanted to get Brenda off my back so we could start fresh! I wanted to build our own development company! If I had cleared the debt, we could have used the rest to buy commercial land!”

“You handed me two hundred dollars, Christopher,” I said, my tone as steady as stone. “You looked at me three days after I had our daughter pulled out of my body, and you told me to find a hovel in Scranton while you and your mother kept the proceeds of a fraudulent sale. You didn't do it for us. You did it because you thought I was weak. You thought I was helpless.”

“I was scared!” he pleaded. “Nora, think of Harper! What will she think when she grows up and finds out her father is in prison?”

“She will know that her father was a thief who tried to steal her future,” I replied. “And she will know that her mother was strong enough to protect her.”

“Nora, wait! What about the bail? Rachel said you won’t post bail! It’s only seventy-five thousand dollars! You have three million! Just post the bond, please! I’ll sign the divorce papers! I’ll waive all rights! Just get me out of here!”

I took a deep breath, looking across the sunlit room to where Harper was sleeping soundly in her crib, completely untouched by the poison of her father’s greed.

“Keep the two hundred dollars, Christopher,” I said softly. “You’re going to need it for the commissary.”