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One profession still functioning during the pandemic — even though there were rare (and usually virtual) — court appearances was the legal profession. I had a good friend who was an attorney and he put me in contact with Susan Shark (her real surname is Sharpton, but everyone calls her Shark and she had no problem with it because she is as restless and vicious as a tiger shark), the divorce specialist in his firm.
Electronically I gave Susan what information I had from Lisa’s cellphone, which fingered both Martin and Upton. I didn’t tell her about my personal contact with Upton since that was confidential information but I did express the desire to see if he was the source of the infection of our family. I gave her the recording of what Martin told me but since that was obtained from him under duress she said we couldn’t use it, although we could call him to testify if things went to trial. We could use the cellphone information since both my cellphone and Lisa’s were part of the same account with the carrier and I typically paid the bills for both.
Susan thought that I could retain possession of the house and be get physical custody of the kids (as long as both Lisa and I had joint legal custody) if she could prove that Lisa was so reckless as to have been infected with the novel coronavirus from Upton and transferred it to the kids.
I told Susan to draft the divorce petition on the grounds of irreconcilable differences (the only ground recognized in Virginia, where we resided, although adultery can be used to prove irreconcilability). I planned on having her served a day or two after she got out of the hospital. Karen also used Susan to start work on her divorce papers, which would be served right away.
Once our quarantine was lifted — all of me, Karen and the kids tested negative — Karen did not return to Winston’s house. She told him that I needed help with the kids, especially since I needed to go into work for a few hours each day for the tasks that I couldn’t do at home. Karen even turned Winston down when he begged, whined, and threatened seeking her return. A day later he was served with divorce papers.
Three days after our quarantine was over Lisa was released from the hospital. I told Winston over the phone that I was picking her up and taking her to his house to stay.
“What are you talking about?” he inquired.
“I’m divorcing your daughter and she needs a place to stay, so I’m dropping her off at your house. I’ll bring the kids by to see her early evening” I hung up before he could respond.
When I picked Lisa up it was unsurprising that she had lost a lot of weight, and she didn’t really have much to lose when she was admitted. After we took our masks off in the car she leaned over to kiss me, but I turned my head so her lips hit my cheek. She got an odd look on her face and said “You didn’t seem to make much of an effort to contact me in the hospital — I know that the Covid-19 rules prevented you from seeing me but I would have expected some electronic communication.”