I chose my son, and I chose war. Once I realized Travis had thrown Caleb out and lied to keep me in the dark, something inside me hardened. Finding my child filthy and shaken near a trash bin rewired my priorities forever. I stopped asking how a husband could betray us and started asking how a mother refuses to break. I called Marcus, staged the fake arrest, and watched Travis hand over $15,000 like it was the only language he understood—fear and loss. It wasn’t revenge; it was leverage, a way to force a man who discarded my son to pay for the damage he caused. Filing for divorce the next day felt less like failure and more like crossing a border into safety. Now, in our small apartment with secondhand furniture and quiet evenings, my boy knows I chose him first, last, and always.