Chapter 24 - Grace stops working for me
Grace resigned from the household the week after the assault.
Obviously.
I offered paid leave first.
She refused long term.
“I cannot learn how to trust you while you sign my paycheck.”
Fair.
“What will you do?”
“Something else.”
She had spent four years in Vermont managing operations for a small senior-living residence.
Scheduling.
Vendors.
Compliance paperwork.
She was good.
A regional hospitality company hired her as operations coordinator.
Salary:
$78,000.
Not Nathan Cole money.
Real money.
Her own.
Child support was separate.
The court calculated support using statutory principles complicated by my very high income.
We negotiated.
Base monthly support.
Education and medical provisions.
A capped extracurricular account.
College funding trust.
No blank check controlled by Grace.
No poverty theater.
I also paid an agreed amount of retroactive support covering a portion of the years I had unknowingly missed.
Grace initially refused.
Her lawyer said:
“It belongs conceptually to the child.”
She accepted.
Good lawyer.
I bought Lily no house.
No pony.
No six-figure birthday party.
I bought her a bicycle.
Wrong size.
Grace laughed for ten minutes.
I returned it.
May you like
Fatherhood remained humbling.
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