What a thrilling drug love is, that love at first sight, that sees only perfection, that

hears in the lover the sweetest of all voices, the heart that swells and has overcome.

Oh, and the brain, of course, the brain that edits out the inconvenient bits.

It's said to see only what they want to see, only show what they want to have seen.

Little wonder then, that when crisis comes, as crisis always does, some are surprised

to find a stranger lurking behind their lover's face, a mean, venal, and conniving character.

Chris and Nancy lay them in hope to avoid all that, and amicable no contest divorce was

what they had in mind, but emotions at the bitter end of love had another idea.

18 months after their breakup began, they were at each other's throats hurling accusations

of infidelity, fighting tooth and nail over money. No longer lovers, they were now bitter enemies.

Any love that I had for him was gone. I don't know if anyone is going through an easy divorce.

No, but this one was uglier than most, and more public.

Nancy claimed Chris engineered her dismissal from a real estate firm.

Chris accused Nancy and her friends of trying to ruin his reputation.

I was constantly being attacked by her in public by what she was saying to friends,

and to mutual acquaintances, but I never once said anything negative.

He is so very cognizant of his reputation and his standing in the community,

and to have his wife sort of put all of his dirty laundry on display.

A nasty divorce? Oh yes, one in which public humiliation was not just an unfortunate byproduct.

It was the goal. That's when Nancy rained the s**t storm down on me.

This is the story of two people so committed to winning

that a viable strategy became murder.

...