W dropped S16 off after a Parent-Teacher evening (only one parent allowed due to COVID). She told me about the feedback from the teachers. I could sense another shoe was about to drop. She told me it had been another year, now almost 2 years since she had moved out. She said she is a completely different person from when she left and "the happiest [she's] ever been." W said she will file for D in the next few days. Her original plan was to do a court order, which involves us sorting things out ourselves, getting a lawyer each to review it and then the court approves it. It's the cheapest way to do things. She told me she doesn't have time for that, she's going to go through a lawyer. W said we could share the lawyer and do it together, or I could get my own. W is giving me a few days to decide.
W went interstate with an old friend who was promoting her self-help book at a conference. The book is all about how she escaped her first marriage, which she says was full of emotional abuse, gaslighting, silent treatment, anger, etc. Last year W told her father "I'm only just coming to terms with what really went on in our marriage". I didn't know what that meant but I guess it comes out of this. I would never have thought any of that stuff went on, just disagreements and frustration and differing views.
