Chapter 15

On the advice of her lawyer, Angilee did not contest either the divorce or Terry's request for custody. Angilee stood before the judge, contrite and apologetic and made the statement that she hoped someday to earn the right to visit her children. The judge, unmoved, had not only granted full custody to Terry, but denied Angilee any visitation rights for a full year.

The divorce also came down heavily in Terry's favor. After all, what judge would feel sympathy for a women, caught on videotape, fornicating with two men while twenty people, including her husband and daughters, watched? She was granted her personal possessions, a small cash settlement and nothing else.

Donna insisted that Angilee stay with her and share the apartment. Angilee found a minimum wage job, clerking at a women's clothing store and gradually her life began to take on some semblance of order and routine. She pined to see Amy and Mary Beth, but knew that any attempts to see them would simply result in another court ruling denying her access to them for an even longer period of time. She worried that, despite the fact that Donna reiterated on several occasions that it was not a problem, her low paying salary was not doing much to help pay the expenses. Meanwhile, Donna's lifestyle had not changed. She was often away from the apartment, even at odd hours, and was coy in answering Angilee's questions about her comings and goings and, lately, the voluminous number of phone calls which Donna was receiving.