Clara talked me through the process. A complaint was an allegation, not a judgment. We would file a response, preserve evidence, review the facts surrounding Minerva's move-out, and assess whether there were any legitimate claims over property. She also asked whether I had every message and receipt associated with the belongings Billie had collected. I said yes, then opened my notebook and double-checked because I had learned how much I appreciated boring records.
"We can also discuss a counterclaim," Clara said. "But I need to be clear. You can't retroactively invent six months of rent after promising she could stay without paying it. You can seek reimbursement for actual property damage or other recoverable losses if you have a legal basis and evidence. You can't just attach a large number because it makes the other side nervous."
I remembered telling Jonah that I'd love to send Minerva a bill for twenty-eight thousand dollars just to see her expression. Clara's voice made that fantasy sound childish. I admitted it. She laughed once, then said, "That's why you called a lawyer instead of drafting your own lawsuit."
The complaint included statements that were painfully close to things that had happened but twisted in ways that changed their meaning. Minerva said we had been separated for months, that I had pressured her to leave on short notice, that officers had intimidated her, and that I had kept household items she considered jointly purchased. Some of those allegations had at least a connection to real events. I had angrily told her she had two hours, for example, before the officers clarified that she could not be forced out that night on my demand alone.
Clara advised me not to hide that. "If you deny a fact that your own recording establishes, you make everything else harder to believe," she said. "We can acknowledge the angry statement and show what happened afterward. She chose to move, she arranged collection of her property, and the later records matter. The truth doesn't need to be perfect to be useful."
I spent a weekend organizing files. My work habits helped: separate folders for messages, police reports, vehicle documents, video, property inventory, and the public statements. I wrote a timeline that used dates and times rather than adjectives. I made backups in two locations. I resisted the urge to add commentary like "ridiculous" or "obviously a lie" in the margins because the point was to create a record another person could evaluate without needing to share my opinion.