I hadn’t spoken to Elliot in nearly two years when a Facebook message popped up late one night. The sender was a woman I didn’t know—but her last name made my stomach drop: Elliot’s.
Her message was polite, almost rehearsed: she was his new wife and had one question. Slowly, it became clear: Elliot had asked her to get me to confirm our divorce was “mutual and kind” for court.
That wording made my blood run cold. Why would she need that? Because he was trying to rewrite the story of our lives.
I dug into public records. A four-year-old daughter. Conceived while we were married. While I was injecting hormones and grieving our infertility, he was fathering a child.
I called the mother, got the truth confirmed, then confronted Elliot. He asked me to lie for him—but I refused.
In court, the truth came out. Elliot lost custody leverage. His wife divorced him. And finally, I refused to let him rewrite my story.