Everyone turned and stared. Nobody said a word. That was the first time in my life my parents ever went quiet because of me.

Two days earlier, I’d been trimming the overgrown azaleas in my front yard when the envelope came. Cream-colored paper with a county seal I recognized from childhood: Portsmouth Family Court, Virginia. It wasn’t an invitation. It was a summons.

Case #4238. Carter v. Carter, Petition for Property Division.