I went to the sheriff and began documenting everything. Then Mrs. Alvarez came to my garage carrying tomatoes and admitted Gloria had asked her to listen for me. She handed me a note saying Gloria was afraid of me and needed a witness. Later, I found a temporary protection-order request in the trash. It claimed I had threatened Gloria on a night I had been in Salina. Beside it was a note from her brother Dale: “Keep him calm until Friday. The judge will listen if you have the shelter card.” Suddenly the notebook made sense. Someone was building a case against me.

I confronted Gloria by phone. She cried and said Dale told her she needed proof. I admitted that I had been selfish and that our marriage had become empty, but I told her I would not accept lies about what I had done. On Friday, I went to court with my receipts and records. Mrs. Alvarez provided her note, and the shelter confirmed Gloria had sought help filing papers but hadn’t known the dates were false. The judge dismissed the temporary order after the dates were checked. Then I finally said the words I’d been carrying for years: I wanted a divorce.