#Top divorce lawyers UK

[asherandtomarsolicitors]

Best Divorce Solicitors in the UK

[f4ggydog]

LMAO @ that one Pro!Depp Anon! YOU DON'T CARE ABOUT THE TRIAL! YOU ALL HAD MADE YOUR MIND UP BEFORE IT EVEN STARTED! You just rest easy on the fact, that the jury let themselves be manipulated into conceding more to Depp. HOW do you think abusive men EVER got away with their shit in court? By having more money and painting the woman as crazy ("HiStrIOniC PeRsoNalitY DiSordER!"). This is BASIC stuff when it comes to the history of sexism and yet yall are clueless! If you are a woman, anon, then you are already way too fucking comfortable in your thoughtless current privileges (that other women fought and DIED for to make them happen!) to still have a clue… the amount of women who are just clueless over what these people are doing, who fucking celebrated Depp's win as progress for male victims, thinking these people had everyones best interest in mind- have NONE of you ever looked beyond the Google definition of feminism??? It's crazy how you lot happily and naively help misogynistic powerful men dig the grave of women's rights. IF you cared about trials, you would fucking aknowledge, that it's LEGALLY PROTECTED SPEECH TO CALL DEPP A WIFEBEATER IN THE UK! You ALSO realize that NOTHING about an US trial is actually about "facts", right? Do you think, that evidence is being presented in an unbiased manner (how come Amber's evidence got blocked? How come evidence against Depp had to be accidentially unsealed by dumb fans of his?) Do you think, that a defense lawyer's job isn't about lying, manipulation, playing into people's biases? That handmaiden of the patriarchy, Camille Vasquez, wouldn't stop bragging for ages after the trial over how good of a job she did with manipulating yall. Here's how you win a court case: have way more money than your opponent so you can prolong this shit and get the better lawyers aka manipulators. Top it off with a jury that is suceptible to prejudices most people hold. Depp's Kremlin lawyer leaked ONE out of context, falsely subtitled bit of an audio recording to the public and yall with your social media, true crime and Hollywood movies-rotten brains went: "OhOhOh, the secret villainess told on herself, plot twist!" (when she literally didn't, yall quote her wrong to this freaking day). Depp literally flew out to explain the DARVO strategy to an abusive soccer player, who wants to pull the same shit on his abused wife, as we speak. His bff Marilyn Manson tried his strategy as well. Wanna hear some other facts about Depp? Like how he'd brag over assaulting others out of anger when Amber was still in diapers? How so many of his buddies are fellow abusers and rapists? How his former business partner went missing (and hasn't been found to this day) A DAY before he was supposed to testify against Depp in court? The firsthand horror stories others have about him? Like how he once ambushed and shot blanks at a PA, making the PA so terrified for his life that he pissed himself and Depp thought that was hilarious! You all didn't ever believe Amber. SHE'S the one who lost jobs due to divorcing Depp, not him. SHE'S the one who constantly had to change her number, because strangers threatened her with calls and texts, during the time where everyone supposedly "believed her". If you had ever truly believed her, you wouldn't have been so easy to manipulate to the point of writing off: Depp constantly telling on himself and his proven character in interviews, messages and on recordings. You wouldn't write off contemporaneous text messages and emails, contemporaneous therapy and medical records, contemporaneous PROVEN UNEDITED pictures of Amber's injuries, and 10+ witnesses who saw Amber's injuries in person (+ more witnesses attesting to Depp being the abuser, such as their former relationship consultant Dr Amy Banks (a Harvard-trained world renowned expert in Domestic Violence!), who had sessions with them both together! Guess what happened to her deposition: that's right, that ALSO got blocked by Depp's team). Or you really are just THAT dumb. Either way, you are a detriment to all women, anon. 💋

I want that Depp defending anon to come back and read every word of ur fucking post because YOU ATE THEM UP SO GOOD. GET THEM AGAIN GET THEM AGAIN GET THEM AGAINNNNN

notice how that anon didn't come back after I called them out on their bullshit too? Yeah u can't put that shit past us

[jeanjauthor]

I want to write a fic for my aunt that’s basically the royal family finding out about Charles and Diana’s daughter (Prince Phillip had her secretly adopted by her now deceased parents but now there’s been a whistleblower. She didn’t know) so If princess Diana was pregnant (by King Charles) before she passed and the daughter delivered but was sent away without Charles knowing only to be revealed now. Would said daughter be entitled to the inheritance Prince Harry and Prince William got finically when younger plus the Jewellery their wife’s got? Or would they not give it.

That's an interesting Alternate Universe / Alternate History idea!

Of course, if it were set in this world, iirc (not a UK lawyer/solicitor/barrister type)...in the UK, illegitimate children cannot inherit directly unless all the most rightful legitimate heirs are deceased or in some other way legally cut out of the inheritance list.

In noble & royal families, certain things are "entailed" which basically is a handy one word statement that meants "this inheritance is attached to the noble/royal title and cannot be separated from whoever by law gets that title."

This can include both funds and jewelry. Now, King Chuck's family would obviously have a lot of entailed stuff in it. Diana was Lady Diana Spencer (also nobility in her own bloodline), so there may be entailed stuff in that situation.

The reason why I mention illegitimate is because these rules overlap with unacknowledged children, and the rules of royalty can get pretty sticky when it comes to royals acknowledging their own child AS their own child. On top of that, if someone was going to get pissy about it *coughcamillacough*, they could argue that children born out of wedlock included children who are born after their parents got divorced.

If the child were acknowledged by the person holding the title of interest, then there might be some entailed inheritances. And by law, at that point "annual incomes" and "family jewelry" might then come into the daughter's possession, since in a lot of European families, entailed jewelry and/or dowries have historically been a thing. In the case of the entailed jewelry, she would only get to wear it for as long as she remained within the family; if she gets kicked out or storms out officially/legally, nope, it goes back to the vaults of the original bloodline--pawning entailed jewelry is very much seen as a no-no, for example.

But that covers entailed or "goes with the title" stuff. If it's regular funds & regular (non-entailed) jewelry? If it is mentioned in the will. Such as by the phrase "to be divided equally among my children," but without naming them individually. Those children would probably then have to cough up a portion of their own inheritances that would equal the missing share, etc.

If it's regular inheritance stuff, and it's not mentioned in a will, even in an indirect phrasing like the example above...that kid gets nothing.

Again, I am not a lawyer in the UK, let alone one specializing in inheritance laws. But these are things that are generally how it works.

In this universe.

If you want to write one where inheritance laws work a little bit differently, go for it!

However, you might want to clue in your readers that the story is most definitely in Another Version of Earth. Maybe the inheritance laws are based on DNA, regardless of legitimacy? Maybe there was a secret will? Or even just clauses in a will that were withheld and not available to everyone after Diana's passing? Maybe the truth wasn't to be revealed until The Other Woman *coughcamillacough* passed away, to ensure that The Other Woman couldn't harm any daughters (who would have more right to wear certain jewelry than her, even if not the right to wear all the jewelry instead of her).

...Or maybe you just have "Ye olde timey London dinosaur cabbies" walking around in the background, driving carriages with tour business banners attached to the spine-plates of the stegosauruses plodding their way through Trafalgar Square.

I dunno! You do you. It's your story.

[beardedmrbean]

With rumours that Prince Harry’s marriage to Meghan Markle is on the rocks, apparently sister-in-law Princess Kate Middleton has offered him a shoulder to cry on.

While the couple have neither confirmed nor denied the rumous, speculation remains rife. Some say Prince Harry has already hired a top divorce lawyer.

Author and socialite Lady Colin Campbell told Entertainment Daily, “There have been problems in the marriage supposedly for some time. I mean, I have heard from five totally reliable sources that Harry called in the lawyers some months ago. The problem is that the information doesn’t necessarily match up with their public face. But of course, their public face is to an extent slapped on for monetary gain,” she said.

One source close to the royal family told Entertainment Daily, “Kate usually turned her head away from any malicious rumours, but naturally she has been privy to the gossip about Harry being unhappy in the States. For her, whatever has gone between Harry and the family, she still cares about him.

“She has discreetly let him know that if he decides he needs a break from the stresses in America, she’s happy to be a confidante and a shoulder to cry on. Kate has made it clear Harry can call her whenever she wants.”

The source did say that Markle will likely not be happy with Harry reconnecting with his sister in law.

“While Kate will always forgive Harry, she know that being Harry’s confidante in the UK will rile Meghan, who has always felt that Kate tried to turn Harry against her. Meghan will be even more concerned that she’s on hand to give Harry advice while they go through a tough patch. But Kate won’t be told what to do and she’ll rise above the hate.”

[lindsaywesker]

Good morning! I hope you slept well and feel rested? Currently sitting at my desk, in my study, attired only in my blue towelling robe, enjoying my first cuppa of the day. Welcome to Too Much Information Tuesday.

Nearly 1 billion people will go to bed hungry tonight.

We never ‘lose’ friends, we just learn who our real ones are.

The poorest Americans are still richer than 80% of the world.

Magic mushrooms grow in the gardens of Buckingham Palace.

One-third of Taiwanese funeral processions include a stripper.

51 cars a year overshoot and drive into the canals of Amsterdam.

In 1999, ‘mp3’ surpassed ‘sex’ as the most-searched term online.

According to her last wishes, Elizabeth Taylor arrived late for her own funeral.

Though sloths are known for their slowness, sloth sex lasts less than a minute. (30 seconds more than most men!)

Patience is not the ability to wait but how you act while you're waiting.

4000 children under the age of two are listed as owners of British companies.

Couples that tease each other gently often have happier, stronger relationships.

7% of American adults believe that chocolate milk comes from brown cows.

The sentence "Are you as bored as I am?" can be read backwards and still makes sense.

There is a place in Norway called Hell and it regularly freezes over during the winter.

British adults spend (on average) one hour and 52 minutes of each day in a bad mood.

We are subconsciously more attracted to people who have the same taste in music as we do.

Millennials (those born between 1981-1996) are having less sex than their parents did at their age.

In 1982, 43% of fathers in the UK had never changed a nappy. By 2000, this had dropped to 3%.

Unhappy people tend to daydream about the past but happy people tend to daydream about the future.

A sapiosexual is a person attracted to intellectual or mental qualities rather than physical characteristics.

A person that truly loves you will never let you go or give up on you, no matter how hard the situation is.

90% of the time it's not the person you miss, it's the feelings and moments you had when you were with them.

The chemical resveratrol, which is present in red wine, has been found to boost sex drive and performance in men.

Most ‘laugh tracks’ for TV were recorded in the fifties, which means many of the people you hear laughing are no longer alive.

If you want to quit smoking, go to a sauna for three days in a row and you'll sweat out the nicotine, which will make it easier to quit.

Senior citizens in New Zealand can join ‘coffin clubs’, where they meet up once a week to make and decorate their own coffins.

During the Fastnacht parade in Germany’s Black Forest, people hit each other with inflated pigs’ bladders attached to dried bull penises.

'Euphoria' Season 3, 'The White Lotus' Season 3, and 'The Last of Us' Season 2 are being delayed due to the writers’ strike. (Just bloody pay them!)

Part of Rupert Murdoch’s divorce settlement with Jerry Hall states that she is not allowed to give plot ideas to the writers of ‘Succession’.

Countries around the globe celebrate their freedom on Independence Day, with the most common being independence from British rule.

The first recorded use of the word ‘woke’ - to mean well-informed - was in a New York Times glossary of “words you might hear in Harlem” from 1962.

Research shows that heterosexual men who learn to play extreme metal guitar are mostly motivated to do so in order to impress other heterosexual men.

A study of 7000 US adults has found that, after the COVID-19 pandemic, people have become less extroverted and less agreeable. (No shit, Sherlock!)

Ethiopian languages have a punctuation mark for sarcasm. It is called ‘temherte slaq’ and looks like an inverted exclamation mark. (Christ, I’d be using that all day!)

Bruno Mars’ 'Doo-Wops & Hooligans' has now spent 12 full years on the Billboard Top 200 album chart. It's the first debut studio album in history to reach this milestone.

In 1871, lawyer Clement Vallandigham was defending a client accused of murder. In demonstrating how the victim might have accidentally shot himself, he accidentally shot himself. He died. His client was acquitted.

In 2007, a Bosnian couple cheated on each other with each other. They had spent time in a chat room bonding about their marital woes. When they met in person, they found out the person they had been complaining to was their spouse. They got divorced.

The first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary included the word ‘cock’ but excluded ‘condom’. The male genitals were not considered taboo but contraception was a subject “too utterly obscene for the dictionary”.

Okay, that’s enough information for one day. Have a tremendous and tumultuous Tuesday! I love you all.

[startmetric]

Why Google Ads Costs Change & How to Maximize Your Budget

Google Ads Cost in 2025

In 2025, “Google Ads Revenue” keeps on growing. In 2023, it pulled in $237.855 billion, and approximately $264 billion in 2024. This boost shows just how key the platform is in the online ad world. Businesses need to get how the Google Ads cost work and make sure they’re using their ad money the best way.

Read more articles: Startmetric Services

Google Ads remains a top advertising platform helping businesses reach their target audiences across the globe. For small businesses and large companies alike, it’s key to understand Google Ads costs, pricing management, and ways to boost return on ad spend (ROAS). Google Ads cost changes fast, and prices shift based on things like competition, industry trends, and how users behave.

This guide will break down Google Ads costs in 2025 looking at main pricing models how to figure out cost-per-click (CPC), and tips to handle your ad budget well.

What Determines Google Ads Pricing?

The cost of Google Ads changes a lot depending on several things. These include how competitive your industry is, what keywords you pick, who you’re trying to reach how good your ads are where you’re targeting, and whether it is a busy season. Getting a handle on these factors helps companies make smart choices, use their ad money, and get better results from their campaigns.

Here’s a small chart summarizing the key factors that affect Google Ads costs:FactorImpact on Google Ads CostBidding SystemHigher bids set the price, but ad quality can reduce costs even with lower bids.Industry and CompetitionCompetitive industries like legal or healthcare have higher CPC rates.Geographic LocationAds in high-demand areas (US, UK, Canada) tend to have higher costs.Seasonal Demand and Time of YearDuring peak seasons (e.g., Black Friday), CPC rates can rise significantly.Ad Quality and User ExperienceHigh-quality ads with better user experience result in lower CPC.

The Bidding System

Google Ads uses a bidding system where companies set the most, they will pay for an ad click. The platform runs an auction, but the highest offer doesn’t always win the top spot. Where your ad ends up depends on a mix of your top bid, quality score, and expected effect of add-ons (like site links or callouts).

Your bid sets the price you’re ready to pay, but ad quality can cut your costs even if you’re not the highest bidder.

Industry and Competition

The competition level in your industry has a huge impact on Google ads costs. Tough sectors like legal, finance insurance, and healthcare see higher CPC rates because many businesses bid on the same keywords. Take the legal industry for instance. It can face CPCs up to $50 per click for hot keywords such as “personal injury lawyer” or “divorce attorney.” In contrast, industries with fewer competitors might enjoy lower CPCs sometimes below $1.

Geographic Location

Where you aim your ads can shape how much you pay for Google Ads. When you target places with lots of buying power, like the US, UK, or Canada, you will often see higher costs per click. This happens because more businesses want to advertise there, so there’s more competition. On the flip side, if you aim at growing markets or countries where people have less money to spend, you might pay less for each click.

Seasonal Demand and Time of Year

At specific times of year, Google Ads costs can jump. Take Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or the holiday season as examples. During these periods more businesses want the same keywords, which drives up CPCs. Companies hoping to cash in on seasonal demand might see their costs soar for sought-after keywords. This is true in retail or online shopping industries.

Ad Quality and User Experience

Google calculates a quality score to evaluate how relevant and effective your ads are. Ads of higher quality (those that match what users are looking for, give a great experience, and take people to pages that fit) cost less than ads that aren’t as relevant or don’t get people to engage. Google gives top-notch ads a lower CPC, but makes low-quality ads more expensive.

How Google Ads Works: CPC and ROAS Explained

Knowing how Google Ads figures out Cost Per Click (CPC) and Return on Ad spend (ROAS) helps you budget your campaigns and check how well they’re doing. CPC is the real amount you shell out when someone clicks your ad. Things like your top bid how good your ad is, and what your rivals are doing can change this. ROAS shows how much money you make for every dollar you put into ads. It’s a big deal because it tells you if your campaign is making a profit. Let’s take a closer look at these two ideas:

What is CPC in Google Ads?

CPC refers to the cost you pay when someone clicks on your advertisement. But your maximum bid doesn’t always match the actual CPC. Google applies an auction model where the highest bidders don’t always get the top spot. , the CPC you end up paying often hinges on the Ad Rank of the advertiser right below you in the rankings.

How Google Ads Calculates ROAS

ROAS = Revenue from Ads / Cost of Ads

ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) shows how well your ad campaigns work. It figures out the money you make for each dollar you put into Google Ads. Let’s say you spend $100 on Google Ads and make $500 in sales. In this case, your ROAS would be 5:1. When you see a higher ROAS, it means your campaign brings in more profit. Google Ads gives businesses tools to keep an eye on this number and make it better, so they get the most bang for their buck.

Strategies to Optimize Google Ads Costs

To get the most out of your Google Ads campaigns, you need to use strategies that have an impact on cost reduction and boost productivity.

Setting Clear Campaign Goals

Before kicking off any Google Ads campaign, you need to know your end goal. Your aim might be to drive more traffic to your website, boost sales, or raise brand awareness. Having clear objectives will help you create effective campaigns. Campaign goals have an impact on your bidding strategy and overall budget, so you need to define them from the beginning.

Smart Bidding Tactics to Cut Google Ads Cost

Google Ads offers various bidding strategies that adjust your bids to achieve the best results at the lowest cost. Includes,

Target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition): This strategy alters bids to help you get as many conversions as possible within your target cost. By setting a desired cost per conversion, this strategy tweaks bids to maximize conversions within your budget making sure you use your advertising money well.

Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): This approach aims to boost return on ad spend by changing bids based on expected conversion value. Focusing on increasing revenue compared to ad spend, Target ROAS adjusts bids based on expected conversion values helping to achieve a better return on investment.

Maximize Clicks: This method sets bids to get the most clicks your budget allows. It adjusts bids to bring more visitors to your site while staying within your spending limits.

Maximize Conversions: This approach aims to secure the highest number of conversions for your given budget. By fine-tuning bids to generate as many conversions as possible within your budget, this strategy makes sure your ad money goes toward the most promising opportunities.

Managing Your Budget

A budget with a solid structure plays a crucial role in overseeing your Google Ads expenses. Keep tabs on how your campaigns perform and tweak your budget according to the outcomes. You can also make use of daily limits on spending and smart budget distribution to have a handle on your Google Ads costs.

Google Ads Cost in 2025: Current Trends and Averages

In 2025, Google Ads costs still change based on many things. But some patterns are starting to show up across different fields. Let’s check out the typical CPCs for several big industries in 2025,IndustryAverage CPC ($)Legal$6 to $50Finance & Insurance$3 to $40E-commerce$0.50 to $3Technology$1 to $5Health & Wellness$2 to $10Ad TypeCost Per Click (CPC)Cost Per 1000 Impressions (CPM)Search Ads$0.23–$1.72$0.57Display Ads$0.06$0.57Shopping AdsCost-effective, variesHigher return on ad spend

How Google Ads Help in the Advancement of Business Goals

Google Ads has an impact on your business by reaching the right people at the right moment. Here’s how Google Ads can helps your company getting,

Reaching Potential Customers: Companies can zero in on specific user groups by picking relevant keywords.

Boosting Traffic and Sales: Ads that are well-tuned can lead to more website visits and sales helping your business grow.

Getting Your Name Out There: Google Ads campaigns are a great way to get noticed and make more people aware of your brand.

Summary

Getting a handle on the costs linked to Google Ads is crucial to manage ad campaigns well. To get the most bang for your buck, companies need to look at key things that have an impact on pricing. These include competition where ads show up how good the ads are, and the ways you bid.

What’s more, you can make sure your Google Ads campaigns work well and don’t break the bank. To do this, use smart bidding methods zero in on keywords that matter, and keep making your campaigns better over time.

If you want to grow your business and boost your ads, Startmetric provides top-notch PPC services to help make your Google Ads campaigns more effective for better CPC, ROAS, and overall outcomes. Check out how our skilled team can help you reach your business targets through custom-made ad plans. Head over to Startmetric’s PPC Services to begin!

[ilaw3]

The Role and Evolution of Legal Firms in Today's Landscape

Legal firms play a crucial role in the justice system, offering essential services to individuals, businesses, and governments. Over the years, these firms have expanded their operations, integrated new technologies, and adapted to changes in the global legal environment. This article explores the structure of legal firms, the services they provide, recent industry developments, financial performance, and ethical challenges.

Understanding Legal Firms

Legal firms, commonly known as law firms, are business entities formed by one or more lawyers to engage in the practice of law. They provide legal advice, representation in disputes, and assistance with contracts, regulatory compliance, and other legal matters. These firms range from solo practices to multinational organizations with thousands of attorneys.

Types of Legal Firms

Legal firms vary in size, structure, and area of specialization. The primary types include:

Solo Practitioners: Single-lawyer firms handling general legal issues or specializing in specific areas.

Small Firms: Boutiques with a few attorneys focusing on niche areas of law.

Large Firms: Full-service firms employing hundreds or thousands of lawyers across multiple locations.

Specialized Firms: Firms concentrating on particular legal fields such as intellectual property, environmental law, or corporate law.

Services Offered by Legal Firms

Legal firms provide a broad range of services to meet the needs of clients across various industries. Key services include:

Litigation: Representing clients in lawsuits and court disputes.

Transactional Services: Assisting with business transactions, mergers, and acquisitions.

Regulatory Compliance: Ensuring clients adhere to laws and industry regulations.

Intellectual Property Protection: Securing trademarks, patents, and copyrights.

Family Law: Handling cases related to divorce, custody, and adoption.

Recent Developments in the Legal Industry

The legal industry is dynamic, with firms continuously adapting to new challenges and opportunities. Key developments include mergers, market expansion, and technology integration.

Major Mergers and Expansions

Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling Merger: In May 2023, UK-based Allen & Overy merged with US firm Shearman & Sterling, forming A&O Shearman. This merger created a firm with nearly 4,000 lawyers across 47 offices, generating approximately $3.5 billion in revenue. Hervé Ekué became the first Black leader of a Magic Circle law firm.

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison Expansion: Traditionally a New York-based firm, Paul Weiss expanded into the London market in 2023, establishing a new office in Soho and growing to 210 lawyers. This move highlights the increasing globalization of legal services.

Financial Performance of Legal Firms

Financial metrics provide insight into a firm's success and stability. Revenue, profit per partner, and revenue per lawyer are key indicators of a firm's financial health.

Top Law Firms by Revenue

According to recent data, the largest legal firms by revenue include:

Kirkland & Ellis: $6.042 billion

Latham & Watkins: $5.490 billion

DLA Piper: $3.471 billion

Baker McKenzie: $3.126 billion

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom: $3.025 billion

Compensation Structures

Compensation strategies vary among legal firms. Latham & Watkins, for instance, has increased pay for top-performing lawyers to over $20 million per year. This move aims to compete with rival firms but has also intensified internal competition among partners.

Industry Recognition and Rankings

Legal firms are evaluated based on their expertise, client satisfaction, and performance in different practice areas. Publications such as The Legal 500 and Chambers & Partners provide these rankings.

The Legal 500: Offers rankings of law firms across different jurisdictions and practice areas, serving as a key resource for clients seeking top-tier legal representation.

Chambers & Partners: Publishes global rankings of firms and individual lawyers. In its latest global guide, Spanish firms Uría Menéndez, Garrigues, and Cuatrecasas ranked highly, with Uría Menéndez receiving eight top-band mentions.

Challenges and Ethical Considerations

Despite their prominence, legal firms face challenges, including ethical concerns and maintaining integrity.

Ethical Violations: A high-profile case involves Tom Goldstein, a renowned attorney jailed for tax evasion and misusing his law firm's funds to cover gambling debts. This case highlights the importance of ethical conduct within legal firms.

Regulatory Compliance: Firms must navigate complex legal frameworks to ensure compliance with laws governing client confidentiality, financial reporting, and attorney conduct.

Conclusion

Legal firms play an essential role in shaping business and society. As the industry evolves, firms must adapt to globalization, technological advancements, and financial pressures. Ethical considerations remain paramount, ensuring that legal firms maintain their reputation and uphold the principles of justice. Whether through mergers, AI integration, or expansion into new markets, legal firms will continue to be at the forefront of the legal profession, serving clients.

[prenuplawyeruk]

UK's Premier Marriage Divorce Lawyers on WenUp

Need legal guidance through marital changes? Connect with top-tier marriage divorce lawyers in the UK on WenUp. Tailored solutions for your unique situation. Explore now for peace of mind!

[hauntedfuryz]

Princess Haya's Husband Discovers Affair with Bodyguard

An insider has claimed that Dubai’s ruler found his estranged wife Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein with her British bodyguard during a surprise visit to their London home, and suspected the two had “inappropriate contact” with one another.

In May this year, Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum was attending a joint wedding of his three sons in Dubai when he unexpectedly returned to his $106m British mansion, Daily Mail reports.

According to family sources, the king was “shocked” to see his wife with the bodyguard and immediately demanded her to return with him to Dubai. Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, 45, reportedly refused to do so and is now embroiled in Britain’s most expensive divorce.

According to certain publications, the Dubai ruler also found strips of used condoms beside Haya’s bed as well as two glasses, proving the romantic couple were having sex in the bedroom while their children were in the next room. These claims are, however, unconfirmed.

It is being claimed that the billionaire racehorse owner was already skeptical about the relationship between his wife and the former serviceman who provided security detail to the royal family.

According to The Times, Haya Bint Al Hussein lavished several gifts on the bodyguard that raised eyebrows among senior royals, who did not approve of the closeness between the two.

“The Sheikh came back to the house unannounced and found his wife with the bodyguard. His suspicions were confirmed,” a source told the outlet. “Having left for his sons’ wedding he was not expected to be back so early. He did not tell the staff he would be coming back and arrived unannounced at the house where he found his wife and the bodyguard. They were too close for his liking.”

But the Times report also suggested the Sheikh’s suspicions were unfounded.

Following the Haya Bint Al Hussein’s refusal to go along, the billionaire flew home to Dubai while his wife and two young children remained in London. He would later post a poem online alluding to the alleged relationship.

“You betrayer, you betrayed the most precious trust, and your game has been revealed,” he wrote.

Al Maktoum had reportedly left his wife and kids behind to attend his eldest son Prince Hamdan’s wedding on May 15, where his two other sons Sheikh Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, and Sheikh Ahmad were also wed in a joint ceremony.

Later this month, Haya Bint Al Hussein will appear in court to initiate the most expensive divorce in the UK, with the pair hiring top lawyers, it is claimed.

According to Daily Mail, Haya Bint Al Hussein has called on Fiona Shackleton, the attorney who handled the divorce of Princess Diana from Prince Charles.

The report further stated the estranged couple is also battling in court for custody of their children.

Senior members of the Dubai royal court reportedly became concerned about the “inappropriate intimacy” between the princess and the unidentified bodyguard, sources told Daily Mail. They also claimed the bodyguard is unlikely to ever return to the UAE and shall remain in London after being found with the princess.

According to previous claims, Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein fled from Dubai after spending months “meticulously” planning her escape. She allegedly feared she would face the same fate as Princess Latifa. The daughter of the billionaire sheikh, with another one of his six wives, was reportedly captured as she tried to get away and dragged back to Dubai.

She later claimed in a video that her escape bid was discovered and was subsequently held on her father’s orders.

That said, the bodyguard in question allegedly informed Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein about her husband’s ill-treatment of Princess Latifa, 33, saying she was allegedly imprisoned and tortured after an escape attempt during her teens and was forced to return to Dubai once again last year after another failed escape.

According to the report, the bodyguard allegedly relayed “disturbing facts” to the Princess, thus inspiring her decision to file for a divorce.

“We hope that when this reaches the High Court the truth about the appalling treatment of Princess Latifa finally comes out,” David Haigh from the Free Latifa Campaign said. “Haya Bint Al Hussein is a crucial witness and one person who can tell the world what has happened to Latifa.”

Haya Bint Al Hussein is currently said to be hiding with her children in her own mansion that overlooks Kensington Palace. She is now the subject of unprecedented legal action by her husband, who is reportedly trying to obtain a court order to have his children flown back to Dubai.

[asseopro]

Meet Elaine Elizabeth Presley, a multi-talented star with a big heart.

Kingsport, Tennessee, June 8, 2023, Elaine Elizabeth Presley, also known as Liz, is one of Tennessee’s top 1% residents and a multi-award-winning businesswoman, philanthropist, and artist. She is the proud recipient of the "PGEA Outstanding Humanitarian Award", 2022, and "Memphis Businessperson of the Year", by Alignable, 2018, 2022, and 2023. 

Born in the UK, she graduated from high school and university in Tennessee. Attending Northeast State and American Intercontinental University. Presley’s parents, sister, and daughter are first-degree DNA descendants located in TN, MS, NY, and CA, with grandchildren in California, and other second-degree and beyond DNA families located in TN, the UK, and throughout the world. Presley is a descendant of American, English, German, French, and Cherokee heritage. 

Listed on 23 & Me DNA, Living DNA, and My Heritage DNA, with Ancestry DNA showing the DNA of Elaine and her mother Priscilla Presley through family and to her father through family and her Cherokee heritage with certificates of  DNA via DNA Consultants.  Family Tree DNA has her listed as a Presley in groups highlighted and supported by the Presley family. 

In addition, Elaine Elizabeth Presley has been recognized by the Federal Government via a 7-year federal investigation from 2020. At this time, the federal government did not recognize out-of-wedlock children; then, in 2022, the law was changed, and now they do, and they did recognize Elaine Elizabeth Presley, born out of the army in 1959, with secret files revealing her father's legal case with lawyers hired in the UK. 

She is an American singer/songwriter, actress, and author who lives in Tennessee, proudly supporting and protecting her family and legacy and running the Presley Foundation Inc. and L & L Presley LLC, both founded in Memphis, Tennessee, at her family’s home. Elaine is continuing her sisters' legacy by proudly making that commitment to keep Lisa Marie’s legacy alive and well and also introducing and signing into legal consideration the Lisa Marie Presley Forever Stamp. And watch out! This powerhouse of a business lady who has yet to lose a case is part of the Presley Battle to Protect Lisa Marie’s Legacy and Fortune by taking over some of Lisa Marie’s fights to win for Lisa.  

Elaine puts deep passion into everything she does, including delivering beautiful music and supporting others from her heart and soul. A spiritual lady with adoration for her fans, she wants people to listen to her music in hopes of bringing butterflies of love into their lives and regenerating the light within the soul. 

She has recently released a book about her true life’s story, entitled "Kid of the King." This autobiography is a must-read, the "#1 Best Seller in Teen and Young Adult Marriage and Divorce on Amazon," and was released worldwide in January 2021. 

  

She is also part of a historic mission to send her DNA to the moon soon. Mission One with the ULA Vulcan rocket, the Astrobotic lander, Elaine Elizabeth Presley’s DNA, and our partners at Arch Mission is getting closer to launch. And together, they are closer to the first off-world DNA seed bank on the Moon. 

You can get a personal or business celebrity video from Elaine through Memmo1. You can also listen to her music on Spotify or watch her videos on YouTube. 

For more information about Elaine Elizabeth Presley, please visit her official website at 

https://www.elaineelizabethpresley.com 

Elaine Elizabeth Presley offers no social media; however, her Facebook page is now run by fans and Facebook itself. 

  Contact: 

Elaine Elizabeth Presley 

3764 Elvis Presley Blvd. 

Memphis, TN 38116 

423 367 7585 

Info@graceland.wiki 

[letterboxd]

Savage Cinema.

From anarchists and adultery to milk baths and massacres, Matthew Turner shares five of the weirdest and wildest highlights of Hollywood’s pre-Code era, as #PreCodeApril comes to a close.

Pre-Code April was directly inspired by Noirvember, a month-long celebration of noir cinema instigated by Marya Gates (Oldfilmsflicker). I did Noirvember for the first time in November 2019, really enjoyed it, and thought it would be great to do the same thing for pre-Code movies. Although I’ve watched most of the classic 1930s films, I realised there were a huge number of pre-Code films I’d never seen (of my Letterboxd list of over 900 Pre-Code films, I have only seen 200).

As a sucker for a bit of wordplay, no matter how tenuous, I picked April partly because it’s six months away from Noirvember and partly because of the shared “pr” sound in April and Pre-Code. I’ve been absolutely delighted by the response—the #PreCodeApril hashtag on Twitter is a daily treasure trove of pre-Code-related joy, but I was genuinely thrilled to see the response on Letterboxd (here is my watchlist for the month). It’s been a real pleasure to see pre-Code movies constantly popping up in my ‘new from friends’ feed. My hope is that it’ll be even bigger next year—and that maybe TCM will want to get involved, the way they do with Noirvember.

Produced between 1929 and 1934, pre-Code cinema refers to films made in a brief period between the silent era, and Hollywood beginning to enforce the Motion Picture Production Code censorship guidelines (mandatory enforcement came in from July 1934). The “Code” in question was popularly known as the Hays Code, after then MPPDA president Will H. Hays. As the depression set in and box office declined, theater owners needed fare that would drive cinema-goers to the movies. It was a wild time to be a scriptwriter; they threw everything at the page, designers added even more, and actors played out the kinds of scenes, from the suggestive to the overt, that would otherwise be banned for decades to come.

The following five films demonstrate some of Hollywood’s craziest pre-Code excesses. They’re still jaw-dropping, even by today’s standards, and notably give female characters an agency that would be later denied as the Christian morals of the Code overruled writers’ kinks.

Madam Satan (1930) Directed by Cecil B. DeMille, written by Elsie Janis, Jeanie Macpherson and Gladys Unger

A critical and commercial flop in 1930, Cecil B. DeMille’s utterly insane musical comedy stars Kay Johnson as a straight-laced wife who plots to win back her unfaithful husband (Reginald Denny) by seducing him at a costume party, disguised as a mysterious devil woman. The location of this party? Oh, nothing too fancy, just on board a giant zeppelin. (“Madam Satan or: How the Film gets Fucking Crazy on the Blimp,” as Ryan reviewed it.)

Madam Satan is not by any stretch of the imagination a good movie (the editing alone is laughably bad), but as a piece of pre-Code craziness, it really has to be seen to be believed. Co-written by a trio of women and set in just three locations, it goes from racy bedroom farce to avant-garde musical to full-on disaster movie after a bolt of lightning hits the blimp.

The film is justly celebrated (in camp classic circles, at least) for the wildly over-the-top costumes paraded in the masquerade ball sequence, but there’s weird outfit joy everywhere you look. Keep an eye out for an enterprising extra who’s come dressed as a set of triplets.

Call Her Savage (1932) Directed by John Francis Dillon, written by Tiffany Thayer and Edwin J. Burke

Adapted from a salacious novel by Tiffany Thayer, Call Her Savage was former silent star Clara Bow’s second-to-last film before her retirement at the age of 28. She plays Texas gal Nasa Springer, who’s always had a “savage” temper she can’t explain. In the space of 88 minutes she goes from wild teenager to jilted newlywed to young mother to prostitute to wealthy society girl to alcoholic before finally (it’s implied) settling down with her Native-American friend after discovering that she’s half-Native-American, something the audience has known all along.

Bow’s performance is frankly astonishing, to the point where you simply can’t believe what you’re seeing from one moment to the next. Sample scenes see her savagely whipping both a snake and her Indian friend, smashing a guitar over a musician’s head and violently wrestling her Great Dane… and that’s all in the first five minutes. She’s also frequently in a state of near undress throughout—one funny scene has her maids chasing her with a dressing gown because they’re afraid she’ll run down the street in her négligée.

The rest of the film includes alcohol, adultery, strong violence, attempted rape, murder, syphilis (not named, but heavily implied) and baby death. It’s a veritable smorgasbord of outrageous content and Bow is pure dynamite throughout. The film is also noted for being one of the first on-screen portrayals of homosexuality, when Nasa visits a gay bar in the Village frequented by “wild poets and anarchists”.

Smarty (1934) Directed by Robert Florey, written by Carl Erickson and F. Hugh Herbert

This deeply problematic sex comedy features pre-Code stars Joan Blondell and Warren William (often nicknamed ‘The King of Pre-Code’) at their absolute filthiest. Blondell plays Vicki, a capricious, happily married wife who gets an obvious kick out of taunting her husband, Tony (William). When he cracks and slaps her at a party, she divorces him and marries her lawyer, Vernon (Edward Everett Horton), whom she also goads into slapping her in a deliberate ploy to win back Tony.

Essentially, Smarty hinges on Vicki liking rough sex and it’s completely blatant about it, ending with her sighing “Hit me again” (the film’s UK title!) as they sink into a clinch on a couch, a rapturous expression on her face. It’s a controversial film because on the surface it looks like it’s condoning domestic violence, but it’s very clearly about Vicki’s openly expressed sexual desires—she wants to be punished and dominated, she just has a rather dodgy way of getting what she wants.

It might be unsophisticated, but in some ways Smarty is remarkably ahead of its time and ripe for rediscovery. To that end, it would make a fascinating double bill with Stephen Shainberg’s Secretary (2002). Oh, and it’s also chock-full of lingerie scenes (like most pre-Code films), if you like that sort of thing.

Massacre (1934) Directed by Alan Crosland, written by Sheridan Gibney, Ralph Block and Robert Gessner

Several pre-Code films (notably those made by Warner Bros) took a no-punches-pulled approach to their depiction of social issues, and star Richard Barthelmess actively sought out such projects. Here he plays Joe Thunderhorse, a Native American who’s become famous on the rodeo circuit. When he returns to his tribe to bury his father, he ends up fighting for their rights, taking on corrupt government officials and religious authorities.

Massacre is fascinating because on the one hand it’s wildly insensitive—Barthelmess and co-star Ann Dvorak are both cast as Native Americans—but on the other, it burns with a righteous fury and does more than any other Hollywood film (before or since) to champion the rights and highlight the injustices dealt out to Native Americans. That fury is encapsulated in a horrifying and rightly upsetting rape scene (it happens off-screen, but the cuts leave you in no doubt) that the film handles with surprising sensitivity.

In addition to being a passionate fight against racism and social injustice, the film also has some genuinely shocking sexual content. Most notably, Joe is seen making love to a rich white woman (Claire Dodd, who’s also in Smarty) who has an obvious sexual fetish, flaunting him in front of her friends and making a shrine in her room with Native-American paraphernalia.

The Sign of the Cross (1932) Directed by Cecil B. DeMille, written by Waldemar Young and Sidney Buchman

Yes, this is Cecil B. DeMille again, but no list of weird and wild pre-Code films would be complete without the jaw-dropping ancient Rome epic, The Sign of the Cross. Adapted from an 1895 play by Wilson Barrett, it stars Frederic March as Marcus Superbus (stop sniggering at the back there), who’s torn between his loyalty to Emperor Nero (Charles Laughton) and his love for a Christian woman (Elissa Landi), while also fending off the advances of the Emperor’s wife, Poppaea (Claudette Colbert).

The film is racy enough in its sexual content alone: highlights include the famous scene of Claudette Colbert taking a nude milk bath and an erotic “lesbian” dance sequence, where Joyzelle Joyner’s “most wicked and talented woman in Rome” does ‘The Dance of the Naked Moon’ at Frederic March’s orgy, trying to tempt Landi’s virtuous Christian, to the obvious arousal of the gathered guests.

However, it’s the climactic gladiatorial-arena sequence that will leave your jaw on the floor. Lasting around twelve minutes, it includes: someone getting eaten by a tiger, a tied-up, naked women being approached by hungry crocodiles, pygmies getting chopped up by female barbarians, elephants stomping on heads, a gorilla approaching a naked woman tied to a stake, a man getting gored by a bull, and gladiators fighting to the death, complete with blood and gory injury detail.

The whole thing is genuinely horrifying, even for 2021. Best of all, DeMille pointedly critiques the audience (ourselves included), by showing a series of reaction shots ranging from intense enjoyment to abject seen-it-all-before boredom.

Matthew Turner (FilmFan1971) is a critic, author, podcaster and lifelong film fanatic. His favorite film is ‘Vertigo’. The films in this article are also listed here: Five of the Pre-Code Era’s Most Outrageous Films.

[anntoldst0ries]

Meet my MC

A/N: When I first started playing OH, I had no idea how much I’m gonna love this book... which is why my MC got the first name that crossed my mind. 

When I wrote my first fic, the name stayed because I didn’t know if I’d be able to produce anything more than an incoherent mess.

But as MC evolved in my head, I understood that her name doesn’t fit who she is as a person... and it took me a while to find something that truly resonated with me. I won’t be changing this in my previous fics (at least not now). So, without further ado, please meet Dr Noelle Sky Valentine:

Noelle Sky Valentine was born on the 13th June in London, UK, where her family resided at the time. She is half-English (after her mother) and half-American (after her father) and holds dual citizenship. When asked about this, she always says ‘Amglish’, to which people usually respond: ‘Glish? Which country are you from?’

Friends and family call her ‘Elle’. Her parents found out about the pregnancy in early December and lived in France at the time - that’s how they came up with the name ‘Noelle’ which means ‘Christmas’ in French. Since they both love Christmas, this was a perfect fit.

When Elle was 3 years old, her family moved to San Francisco.

Her dad, Joseph, is a composer. Her mother, Melanie, is a lawyer specialising in media & intellectual property law.

Elle has an older brother, Nick, who is a musician like their dad.

When she was in high school, her parents got divorced and her mum moved back to London. Elle and Nick stayed in SF with Joe, as they didn’t want to leave their schools and friends.

Her mom wed again, her dad has a new partner as well. She adores her dad's new partner, Ava. As her mum lives in London and she doesn’t visit too often, Elle didn’t really have a chance to get to know Grant. But he seems like a good guy.

She was always very musical and loved watching her dad work. The first place she’d go to after school would be his studio. Joe taught both her and Nick to play piano, her brother also plays guitar and cello.

Not many people know that Elle formed a band with her high school friends, which they called ‘Valentine’s Day’. She was also the lead singer.

Elle is totally a daddy’s girl, she’s always had a fantastic relationship with her father.

When Elle was 10, her best friend passed away due to a rare illness, that medicine was not capable of treating effectively at the time. This traumatic experience resulted in her developing an interest in science after she came to terms with what has happened.

In high school, Elle still wasn’t sure about what she wanted to do with her life.

One day, she was doing research on the illness that took her friend from her. That’s when she came across ‘Diagnostics principles’ - a book written by Ethan Ramsey.

She has then read every single thing published by Dr Ramsey and decided to apply to medical school.

Noelle graduated from Johns Hopkins Medical School, top of her class. She applied there for 3 reasons: the possibility of living in a different state, being more independent and most importantly - her medical hero, Ethan Ramsey, graduated from JHMS as well. If she wanted to be as good as him, she had to learn from the best like he did.

On her graduation day, her dad was so proud that he sobbed all the time. He also composed a song especially for this day, which he called “La Merveille” (wonder, miracle).

Elle is convinced she must have been a nymph in her previous life, as she’s always mystically drawn to forests, they are her favourite places and she’s got a million pictures from the woods on her phone.

She can neither confirm nor deny that she is in a relationship with her boss (due to it being or not being unethical).

Tag list 💜 💜 💜 : @genevievemd​ | @terrm9 | @poudredevie | @starrystarrytrouble | @whippedforethanfreakingramsey | @mercury84choices | @maurine07 | @gryffindordaughterofathena | @jamespotterthefirst | @justanotherrookie | @lucy-268 | @aarisa-frost | @caseyvalentineramsey | @brooks-eden | @iemcpbchoices | @lovingramsey | @red-rookie | @qrkowna | @queencarb | @oldminniemcg | @tsrookie | @catchinglikekerosene | @ohchoices | @the-pale-goddess | @schnitzelbutterfingers | @openheartthot​ | @tenaciousdeputydreamfriend​

[coochiequeens]

Istanbul, Turkey – A documentary chronicling the efforts of activists working to end violence against women in Turkey has been chosen as the United Kingdom’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the Academy Awards.

Dying to Divorce, which was produced by Turkish and British filmmakers and took five years to shoot, was released in UK cinemas last week.

It follows the work of lawyer Ipek Bozkurt and activist Aysen Ece Kavas who meet women survivors of gender-based violence in order to help them and their families seek justice through a labyrinthian Turkish criminal system.

Bozkurt and Kavas are part of the We Will Stop Femicides Platform, which tracks violence against women in Turkey. The organisation also helps mobilise support for victims and apply public pressure by showing up at trials and organising rallies around cases.

So far in 2021, men in Turkey have killed 285 women, according to the platform – on course to exceed the 300 who were killed last year.

Violence against women has often captured headlines in Turkey, but women’s rights activists say the country’s legal system has failed at following through prosecutions and sentencing of the perpetrators. The failure, they say, is a result of a top-down narrative that blames women who choose an independent life.

‘More sincere’

Along with seeking to point out the relationship between politics and violence against women, the 81-minute film offers a close look beyond statistics – specifically, at the painstaking physical and emotional toll on two women.

One is Kübra Eken, a television news anchor, who suffered a brain haemorrhage after her husband brutally hit her on the back of the head two days after giving birth to their first child. It took years of treatment and therapy for Eken to regain some mobility and speech. The other is Arzu Boztas, a mother of six, who decided to divorce her husband after she learned he had raped an underage neighbour and then sought to take her as a second wife. One day, the husband told Boztas to send the children away, then showed up with a shotgun, made her lie on the ground and shot her at point-blank range in each arm and leg.

British director Chloe Fairweather said she decided to make Dying to Divorce after seeing a meeting of Boztas with Kavas, the activist. “I had not been quite prepared for the extremity of the violence that happened to her, but I was also really struck by Arzu,” Fairweather said.

“She was so strong in a way and so committed to rebuilding her life … I was motivated then to get her story out there.”

The film follows Boztas and her family, including her father who regrets having married her off at the age of 14, as they seek to ensure her ex-husband is properly prosecuted.

Later in the feature-length documentary, the former husband explains from prison that he does not regret shooting Boztas, saying she was not a good mother to their children. “We should kiss the soles of the feet of such mothers, that’s what our president says,” he says, in reference to a 2014 speech by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about women and motherhood that is shown early in Dying to Divorce. “I would not have gone so far, but she insulted my pride and honour,” the ex-husband adds.

But as the film points out, many of the victims of violence in Turkey are in fact mothers. Boztas waits to see her six young children until she has regained some independence. Doctors are able to restore some use of her arms, but the damage caused by the shotgun wounds to her legs is too widespread, and her legs are amputated. In one scene, after years of rehabilitation, she is fitted with artificial legs, and she shows them to her children.

“When I look in the mirror now, I see my old self,” Boztas says. “A strong, well-kept, charismatic, sturdy mother.” Her children crowd around her. She no longer has feet for them to kiss, but they hug her artificial legs.

“During the course of the shooting, we got used to each other, to know each other,” producer Seda Gokce told Al Jazeera. “You can sense it, the documentary is getting more direct and more sincere.”

The hundreds of femicides occurring in the country each year touch the pious and secular, the wealthy and the poor.

“These murders are not specific to one part of the society,” Bozkurt, the lawyer, says in the film on the way to meet another client. “Violence is where a woman wants to have a modern life, where a woman wants to make a personal choice, so violence is not about lower education and financial deprivation or anything, it’s actually about a woman’s decision and men trying to suppress and prevent that decision-making process.”

The documentary’s look at what drives violence against women, Fairweather said, is one that viewers outside Turkey will also find familiar. “When I was making the film, I never felt it was an extreme or otherising situation,” she said. “It is extreme when you look at what Arzu experienced, but the way in which women are not protected, not heard, I think that is a situation you can see in many countries.”

The decision to not shy away from the politics of femicide and the pressure civil society is under in Turkey, kept the film from being screened this year at the Istanbul Film Festival, the country’s most prestigious film festival, Gokce said. While the festival’s organisers took the time to call and say they were impressed by the film, Gokce said they declined to show it, saying, “because of the political atmosphere in Turkey, it was not wise for them to screen it.”

Al Jazeera reached out for comment to the Istanbul Culture and Arts Foundation, which puts on the festival, but did not receive a reply by the time of publication.

As the filmmakers await word if they will be shortlisted for an Oscar nomination – a decision is expected later this month – Gokce said they are focusing on having more women in the country and outside watch it.

“The most important thing is to reach out to women in Turkey and all around the world because the issues that we are discussing in the documentary are not issues just only for Turkey.”

[arcticdementor]

Dating and the process of mate selection have changed. The rise of hook-up culture, proliferation of dating apps, and ever-increasing age of first marriage are evidence of this. This current situation can be summarized along four parameters:

Increasing female achievement.

Growing variability in male status and competence.

An evolutionary desire among females to marry up.

The globalization of the sexual marketplace and resultant collapse of local status hierarchies.

Together, these conditions have created pronounced imbalances in the modern sexual marketplace. Put plainly, an increasing cohort of successful women are chasing a shrinking number of high-value, commitment-averse men.

At a cursory level, much of this can be explained by sex ratios and partner availability. However, the underlying structure of modern mate selection is fundamentally mathematical. For us to truly understand the causes and consequences of the modern sexual marketplace, a bit of math is required.

…

According to evolutionary psychologist David Buss, the dangers of our evolutionary past favoured females who were highly selective of their mates. To both survive childbirth and raise healthy offspring, early human females needed to evaluate a man’s current position as well as his potential and future trajectories. Consequentially, females typically mate above and across dominance hierarchies whereas males typically mate below and across them.

…

Let us consider height. According to one study, women were most satisfied when their partner was 21cm taller. This is corroborated by other studies which found that 49 percent of women preferred dating taller men and that the shortest man a woman would date was 5 feet 9 inches. Moreover, a study of undergraduates reported that only four percent of women would accept a relationship where the woman was taller. In general, tall men are more likely to obtain attractive partners, less likely to remain childless, and have a greater number of children relative to short men.

However, height isn’t the only factor which determines access to the sexual marketplace. Financial prospects matter as well.

A 1939 study found that American women rated good financial prospects twice as highly as males when gauging the value of a marriage partner. This finding was replicated in studies conducted in 1956 and 1967. Moreover, David Buss, attempting to replicate these studies, surveyed 1,491 Americans across four states in the mid-1980s. Once again, women valued good financial prospects in a mate roughly twice as much as men did. This gender difference has not changed. In fact, a 2014 Pew Research survey reported that 78 percent of unmarried women placed a high premium on finding a spouse with a steady job. Only 48 percent of men shared this view.

…

Furthermore, researchers from the University of Aberdeen found that males could move themselves two points higher on a bespoke attractiveness scale by increasing their salary tenfold. For females to achieve a similar two-point effect, their salary would need to increase by 10,000 times. The socioeconomic status of a man is a major determinant of his attractiveness to a woman, but the opposite is not true.

What happens when a woman out-earns her husband? One study found that marriages where the wife out-earned the husband were 50 percent more likely to end in divorce. This is corroborated by Finnish researchers who concluded that whereas “a husband’s high income decreased the risk of divorce … a wife’s high income increased the risk at all levels of the other spouse’s income, but especially when the wife’s income exceeded the husband’s.”

Furthermore, a study of Swedish couples reported that when the wife contributed 80 percent or more to the total income, the divorce risk was twice as high as when she contributed less than 20 percent. Curiously, one study also found that men who were not the primary breadwinner were more likely to use erectile dysfunction medication relative to men that were.

…

To this extent, researchers, analysing 120 personal dating ads, found that education was one of the two strongest predictors of how many responses a man received from women. The other was income. Moreover, researchers in Australia reported that women were more likely to initiate contact with a man if his education exceeded hers. Indeed, researchers from Ghent University also reported that women on Tinder were 91 percent more likely to “like” the profile of a man with a master’s degree compared to a man with a bachelor’s degree. The cliché that women prefer to marry doctors, lawyers, and entrepreneurs is not a pithy truism. It is a derivative of hypergamy.

…

Hypergamy is an evolutionary fixture. Hating it is tantamount to hating thermodynamic laws or Archimedean axioms. It simply is. Moreover, it is hypergamy that created the competence hierarchies that are used to structure human societies. If seeking to reproduce with choosy females galvanizes a man into conquest and self-actualization, are we not better for it? But what is the effect of hypergamy when females outperform males?

…

But it’s not just the US; the UK, Panama, Sri Lanka, Argentina, Cuba, Jamaica and Brunei have some of the highest female to male ratios in higher education.

Young women are also out-earning young men. According to data compiled by the Press Association, women between the ages of 22 and 29 typically earned £1,111 more each year compared to males in the same age group. As it stands, women contribute $7 trillion to the US gross domestic product per year and are the primary breadwinner in 40 percent of US households.

Crucially, the more professionally successful a woman is, the stronger her preference for successful men.

In a study of financially successful newlywed women, researchers concluded that “successful women place an even greater value than less successful women on mates who have professional degrees, high social status, and greater intelligence.” This trend is also present in cross-cultural contexts. Separate studies of 1,670 Spanish, 288 Jordanian, 127 Serbian, and 1,851 English women all found that high resource women desired mates with greater status and more resources. In general, single women are three times as likely as men to say that they wouldn’t consider a relationship with someone making less than them.

When paired with the ground truth of hypergamy, the growth of female attainment (and comparative stagnation of male attainment) amounts to a law of diminishing returns. The more a woman achieves, the less suitable mates she has to choose from. It is, indeed, difficult to marry above and across dominance hierarchies if you sit atop your own. This difficulty is further compounded by the fact that older high-powered women must compete not only among themselves but with younger women for a fleeting number of high-value men.

…

Successful women face a shortage of demographically superior men to marry. Indeed, the nascent decline in marriage has been attributed to a putative shortage of economically attractive partners for unmarried women. Applying data imputation methods to national survey data, researchers found that unmarried women face an overall shortage of partners with either a bachelor’s degree or yearly income exceeding $40,000.

…

While this observation is far from novel, what is not well understood is the extent to which this imbalance is likely to worsen.

In 2012, there were 88 employed college-educated young men for every 100 college-educated never-married young women. Among never-married young adults with a post-graduate degree, there were only 77 men for every 100 women. In addition, the ratio of employed men to young never-married women has consistently declined. In 1960, there were 139 employed men for every 100 young never-married women. As of 2012, this ratio sits at 91 employed men for every 100 young never-married women.

If you think these ratios are troubling wait till you see what they look like in 20 years. Fortunately, you don’t have to wait that long.

…

Together, these figures point to a lonely future for many educated, career-oriented young women. While some might be understandably sceptical of my findings and conclusions, they are corroborated by a 35-page report put out by Morgan Stanley in 2019.

Cleverly titled the Rise of the SHEconomy, Morgan Stanley forecasts that 45 percent of working women between the ages of 25 and 44 will be single and childless by 2030, the largest share in history. Single women are expected to grow by 1.2 percent annually from 2018–2030 compared with an 0.8 percent growth for the overall US population. By 2030, the percentage of single women will outpace that of married women.

While some of these women may very well eschew the tenets of hypergamy and settle for a man below their financial and educational station, many will seek out a high-value partner. This is where things truly become onerous.

…

If we keep within the parameters of this model, this group of women effectively outnumber their desired partners by a factor of 34. Moreover, if each man is paired with a single woman, this leaves 32.8 million women without a mate. This is a staggering imbalance.

…

According to a study of the dating app, whereas men “liked” 60 percent of female profiles they viewed, women liked only 4.5 percent of male profiles. Moreover, women, on average, viewed 80 percent of men on dating apps as below average in attractiveness. Importantly, one study, seeking to quantify the prospects of success on Tinder, determined that “the bottom 80 percent of men (in terms of attractiveness) are competing for the bottom 22 percent of women and the top 78 percent of women are competing for the top 20 percent of men”.

While power law distributions occur naturally in a multitude of settings, it is my contention that its presence on Tinder is by design. The app’s core algorithm is not calibrated to produce equal outcomes. This is a function of its use of the ELO rating system.

…

Tinder’s financial metagame is contingent on the facilitation of a power law distribution among its users. Given that the top 78 percent of women on the app are vying for the top 20 percent of men, Tinder will do everything it can to keep these men swiping. It cares little for the bottom 80 and 22 percent of men and women as these users do not generate much traffic.

This power law imbalance in the sexual marketplace is one possible explanation for the increase in male sexlessness. According to the General Social Survey, the share of men younger than 30 reporting no sex has nearly tripled from eight percent in 2008 to 28 percent in 2018.

…

Over the past few months, I’ve attempted to create a mathematical model to describe this imbalance in the sexual marketplace. Mathematical modelling is a useful investigative tool for understanding human behaviour.

Though I designed several linear, polynomial, and threshold models, none were able to adequately capture how men and women selected their mates. Fortunately, I came across a 2016 paper by evolutionary psychologists Daniel Conroy-Beam and David Buss which proposed the use of a Euclidian integration algorithm to determine how mate preference and selection were linked.

The problem with my earlier models was that they treated mate preferences in isolation. Potential mates do not present themselves one trait at a time. Rather, we evaluate potential mates based on a bevy of traits.

…

This mathematical model offers key insight into our unbalanced sexual marketplace. The number and weight of a woman’s mate preferences is negatively correlated with the number of eligible mates that are available to her. Thus, the distance of a prospective mate to a woman increases with each new preference she adds. Put simply, the more you demand, the less you receive.

More generally, there’s a disconnect between what women want and what is actually available to them. Whereas greater male attainment increases the number of romantic options a man has, greater female attainment reduces the number of options a woman has.

This imbalance in the sexual marketplace is not a good thing. A society teeming with lonely women and sexually frustrated men is one hurtling toward disaster. It is imperative that we, as a society, think carefully about solutions to this burgeoning crisis.

[underthewingsofthblackeagle]

“Berliner Fernsehturm” * Foto: BernardoUPloud

After her marriage with Frank Randall has failed and Claire Beauchamp flees from her violent husband, she finds refuge in the house of the Fraser/Murray family in Berlin-Wilhelmshorst. But then tensions arise between Britain (which has since left the EU) and some EU member states. All holders of an English passport are required to leave EU territory within six weeks … and suddenly Claire’s fate looks more uncertain than ever.

This story was written for the #14DaysofOutlander event, hosted by @scotsmanandsassenach​

Chapter 11: 14 Men (7)

     "I hope you know that you are very welcome, not only because you are giving us this information or as a medical professional, but as a human being. And I hope you'll be able to settle in."

    Claire nodded. Then she reached out her hand and put it on the old man's right hand.

    "Thank you, Mr. Groide. I appreciate it."

    "You can call me Ferdinand, if you like."

    "Sure, Ferdinand, I'm Claire."

    "Thanks, Claire."

    "Well, after that eventful work meeting, let's have a nice drink, shall we? How about a whisky?"

    Jamie looked at them expectantly.

    Claire nodded.

    "I'd love one."

    Groide shook his head.

    "Jamie, you know I don't drink that stuff. I'll have a vodka, please."

    "You see Claire," said Jamie with an ironic undertone, "you might as well learn something about the Germans here. When it comes to alcohol, they have no taste."

    He handed her a glass of whisky.

    "He's right, Claire. And remember one more thing: We have absolutely no sense of humor either."

    The men began to giggle and Jamie had to stop for a moment before he handed the glass of vodka to Groide.

    "You may say what you usually say about my taste in alcohol, Jamie," Groide then said jokingly.

    Jamie looked at Claire with a grin.

    "He spent too much time with Russians, they spoiled his taste."

    "Sa sdarovje!" was all Groide would answer. Then he turned to Claire again:

    "You said earlier that you intend to ask for a divorce from your husband?"

    "Yes, I do. I hope it's also possible from here."

    Groide looked at her thoughtfully.

    "Do you object to Claire's request, Ferdinand?"

    "No, I understand the request very well. I'm just worried it might put MI5 on to you, Jamie."

    A mild shock drove Claire through and she nearly choked on the whisky she'd just taken.

“Whisky” by PublicDomainPictures

        "I think there's a way we can avoid this. Ever since Claire spoke of filing for divorce, I've been thinking about who could help her."

        "Well? Who did you have in mind?" Groide asked.

        "I have come to the conclusion that I would recommend the service of Stephanie Svart to her," Jamie replied and turned to Claire.

        "She is an excellent specialist family law attorney and the law firm she works for has offices in several Western European countries. I don't know 100%, but I would be very much mistaken if they didn't also have cooperation with American law firms. They could try to do it through their Amsterdam office ... That would move the focus away from Berlin and into one of the countries that is currently in a very tense relationship with the UK ... I don't think they would send anyone there because of the marital disputes of an MI5 employee like Randall. If you add to that the fact that Claire fears repression from her violent husband, you don't even have to give a home address. You can use the address at the law firm."

        Groide nodded smiling and held his empty glass out to Jamie.

        "Well thought out."

        "Who is this lawyer?" Claire asked.

        "We've known her a long time. My Uncle Jared had a girlfriend here in Berlin, or rather, a fiancée. Her name is Violetta Chambeau. They were supposed to get married, but then my uncle's illness came along and his death ... But 'Aunt Vio' is still family. She's the one trough whom my uncle met Stephanie Svart. They both studied at the same university. Mrs. Svart is a specialist in family and inheritance law. We trust her, and if you don't mind, then..."

        "Well, I don't know any lawyers here, and if she's trustworthy... no, I don't mind if you make contact."

        "I've already made an appointment with her, just in case. We could meet her tomorrow morning."

        Claire nodded.

        "The sooner I get this over with, the better."

        She reached for her whisky and took a big sip.

        "What do you think, Ferdinand?"

        "I think it's a good idea."

        Suddenly, there was a knock at the library door. Jamie shouted, "Come in!" and Helene Ballin appeared.

        "Mr. Groide, out of your jacket in the hall there comes the sound of a bell. I assume it's your smartphone?"

        Groide jumped up and hurried out of the room.

“Smartphone” by niekverlaan

        About ten minutes later, he came back.

        "Excuse me, but this call was important."

        The old man sat down, then he looked at Jamie with a serious look:

        "A Carl from Boston called the office at ‘In Vino Veritas’ and asked to speak to you..."

        Now Jamie and Claire looked at him in shock.

        "I've convinced him that I'm a good friend of yours and that he can talk to me too."

        "What did he say?" Jamie asked, his voice giving way his tension.

        "He said a man named Randall called the hotel limo service and asked for a specific car..."

        Claire's face changed color in one fell swoop. Completely pale and with eyes filled with fear she looked at Jamie. The mention of Randall's name, and even more so the fact that he was obviously picking up her trail, had brought fear back into her life within seconds.

        "What happened? What did he say?" Jamie asked.

        "They put Randall's call through to Carl because they knew he was your driver. Carl told Randall, that he drove you to his home, as Randall already knew, and then to the Boston mariana.”

        Jamie and Claire looked at each other first and then at Groide.

        "The marina?" Claire asked incredulously.

        "Yes, Carl felt that it was none of this man's business where he took you. He didn’t know him and he felt his passengers had a right to discretion. That's why he told Randall that he drove you to the quay next to the ‘Yacht Haven Inn & Mariana’. There, he said, you boarded a large yacht. This yacht arrived at the quay at the same time as the limousine and left immediately after both of you went on board. Randall asked him if he had seen the name of the yacht or if he could remember the flag. Carl replied that he had not paid attention to it. But he assumed that it was a private yacht.

        Claire closed her eyes. Her body relaxed, if only slowly. Jamie smiled. Groide remained silent for a few moments. He knew that the two people sitting in front of him would have to digest this shock first. Then Jamie stood up and filled the glasses with whisky and vodka again. After they had drunk in silence, Groide resumed the conversation:

        "Well, that went well once again. At least that's how it looks at the moment. But it's not impossible that Randall recognized you, Jamie. So, for the time being, you won't be taking any assignments outside of Europe... who do you suggest as a replacement?"

        "The best man we have. My adopted son."

        "When will he be ready?"

        "I'll call him in the morning and get back to you first thing."

        "Well, I hope he agrees to take over your duties."

“Tür” by CJ

         When Claire and Jamie got off the elevator an hour later and walked down the hall to their rooms, she asked, whispering:

        "Does your comment about Ferdinand's relationship with the Russians have any deeper meaning?"

        "You mean, if Ferdinand really was involved with Russians?"

        "Hm hm."

        "I don't know, it's a joke between us. Ever since I first met him, I've tried drinking whisky with him. But he always refused, and so far he's stuck to vodka. But I wouldn't be surprised if he had dealings with Russians as part of his service. As far as I know, he came to Berlin to study. That must have been a little over 40 years ago. So it was still the Cold War period."

        They had stopped at the door of Claire's room.

        "Don't worry, Jamie, I'm not here to question you."

        "Oh, I don't think that's top secret information."

        He looked at her and his eyes got caught on her dress.

        "Claire..."

        "Yeah?"

        "What you did tonight... it was remarkable. So much acumen, intelligence. It will have... certainly... taken a lot of strength from you. And tomorrow will be no less exhausting... will you be able to sleep? Is there anything else I can do for you?”

        "Thank you, but I think I’m fine.”

        "If there's anything else... I'll be right here.”

        He pointed to the door of his room.

        "I'll leave the phone on, just in case.”

        "Thanks, Jamie. You're very kind. Good night."

        "Good night, Claire."

        She opened the door and entered her room. When she had closed the door behind her, she held her hand on the door leaf for a moment, as if she could still maintain contact with Jamie in this way. This man touched something inside her. Something that was buried deep under years of neglect, harshness and unkindness that she had experienced through Frank Randall. For the first time since the death of her Uncle Lambert, she felt that someone else really cared about her. Claire went to her bed, pulled out her pyjamas from under her pillow and changed. Then she went to the small desk that stood under one of the windows and turned on the small lamp that was placed  at the right side. From one of her suitcases she took a diary. She sat down at the desk and began to make notes about the evening and about the conversation with Ferdinand Groide. An hour later, Claire closed the book and put it back into the suitcase. She sat down on the bed and reached for her handbag, which she had left on the nightstand. Claire opened it and pulled a zipper attached to the lining. Another zipper was attached to the bottom of this inner bag. When one opened it, you entered a compartment that was hidden in the bottom of the handbag and not visible from the outside. Claire reached into this compartment and then looked thoughtfully at the six silver USB flash drives on her hand. What had Frank once said? You can't let all your cards go at once. She had agreed with Frank only on a few things, but on this point she had to agree with him. Slowly she put the USB flash drives back and closed the handbag. After she had freshened up a bit in the bathroom and put a big glass of mineral water on the bedside table, she lay down and turned off the light. Claire looked up at the ridge of the roof. Through the glass she could see the night sky. She wondered if Jamie was now lying in his bed and looking up there as well. With this thought she fell asleep.

[xofaddiction]

                           𝕠𝕙 𝕕𝕠𝕟'𝕥 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕨𝕠𝕣𝕣𝕪 𝕪𝕠𝕦'𝕝𝕝 𝕗𝕚𝕟𝕕 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣𝕤𝕖𝕝𝕗                                𝕗𝕠𝕝𝕝𝕠𝕨 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕙𝕖𝕒𝕣𝕥 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕟𝕠𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕖𝕝𝕤𝕖                             𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕔𝕒𝕟 𝕕𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕠𝕙 𝕓𝕒𝕓𝕖 𝕚𝕗 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕥𝕣𝕪                      𝕒𝕝𝕝 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕀 𝕨𝕒𝕟𝕥 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕞𝕪 𝕤𝕠𝕟 𝕚𝕤 𝕥𝕠 𝕓𝕖 𝕤𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕤𝕗𝕚𝕖𝕕                                       𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕓𝕖 𝕒 𝕤𝕚𝕞𝕡𝕝𝕖 𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕕 𝕠𝕗 𝕞𝕒𝕟

full name:  gabriel vincent craine

nicknames:  gabe

age:  34

date of birth:  sept. 7

zodiac: virgo

gender:  male

pronouns: he/him

sexuality:  heterosexual

physical

hair color: blond

eye color: blue

height: 6′2″

weight: 194 lbs

personality

morality:  lawful neutral

positive traits: efficient, practical, diligent, focused, intelligent, thorough, shy.

negative traits: hypercritical, demanding, hard to please, self-conscious, reclusive.

job: lawyer

skills: organized, good at time management, unshakable, can speak a few languages (english, spanish, french, and japanese), writing, small guitar skills.

family

parents: vincent and gloria craine.

siblings: isaiah craine ( location unknown deceased )

backstory and details - ＴＲＩＧＧＥＲ     ＷＡＲＮＩＮＧ :                                      mentions of alcoholism, miscarriage/abortion, gun violence, divorce.                                              feelsy shitTM

                                               ✴   ✴   ✴   ✴   ✴   ✴     ✴   ✴   ✴    

home life was good. born to vincent and gloria craine one sunny labor day weekend, gabriel was their miracle baby. he was a blond haired, blue eyed, chubby cheeked toddler who captured their hearts and affections beyond what they could ever imagine. even when their youngest was born, isaiah could and would never live up to his brother’s name.

his family was very catholic, and even in that he was diligent. mass on sundays, easter and christmas, confirmed and baptized, he did what was expected of him as a man of his faith. he was thankful academics kept him too busy to become an altar boy, indulging so deeply he only passively believed in felt like sacrilege beyond what he thought himself capable of.

he was a happy child that grew into a golden boy. valedictorian of his high school, gabe was heavily involved in choir, track, debate team, student council, and won prom king in his junior and senior years without much effort. it wasn’t because he considered himself popular, but because he was personable. he wasn’t snooty or above hanging out with any and every faction of people around school. he found bits of himself in everyone and was always willing to help or tutor in any way he could.

when it came time for college, it came as no surprise that he was fit for ivy league. his choice was dartmouth, somewhere with a liberal atmosphere where he could study without the competitive, stuck up harvard-yale students hounding him to do more and be better. he double majored in english and history and chose to minor in computer science. his degrees were achieved and he finished top of his class.

he attended law school at oxford, electing to study abroad in the uk and take in more than what chicago and new hampshire could. he knew what he learned in litigation for foreign law wouldn’t be useful in america, but it was important for him to understand the nuances of european law as someone interested in international law.

while at oxford, he met danielle fournier, a law student in his class that shared interests with him; from music to art to history and philosophy, she bewitched him body and soul and he fell in love harder than he thought possible. for the moment, he thought she was the endgame for him.

when it came time for him to move back to america, danielle came with him. he enrolled at yale law and worked a full-time job as an assistant in a law firm, doing what he could to support himself and the girl he loved. he did everything right; he went to school, got a dream job, moved off to new york and worked himself to success, proposed to the girl and married her. everything was was it should have been.

he was a shining beacon of hope and an example to everyone in his family, most of all his younger brother. he knew that isaiah had an odd sort of idolization over him. he was the big brother, the one who encouraged and stood as a confidant and first friend for isaiah.

the family seemed complete; two perfectly happy parents, a son with a wife and a bright future, another dating a young, successful woman. they seemed the picture of perfection, but there was some nagging presence that spoke otherwise. his parents were more friends than husband and wife- they stayed together for appearance sake. gabriel was a ceaseless workhorse, and though he did his best to be the good man who came home by 7pm, when he did come home, he found his wife drunk and drowsy, always reeking of expensive wine and stake perfume. and as for his brother and his girlfriend; there was something that felt off, whether it was in their relationship or his own, he did not know. however, something in the back of gabriel’s mind that knew his and katerina vasile’s stories would not end as they had began; acquaintances that only spoke at family gatherings.

he never believed in soul mates or twin flames, despite believing in the presence of a soul. he never understood that even upon a single meeting someone could mean so much to another person right up until the moment it happened. he barely knew katerina, and yet he saw something in her he knew he wouldn’t ever be able to forget. she would stay in his mind forever, and though he loved danielle with everything he had in him, he knew that even in the darkness when he lay drifting, it was her eyes he’d remember.

he would never act on it; he was married and happy to be, and whether the relationship between himself remain stale and passive or grow into platonic companionship, he was glad for either, though he would prefer the latter. if it meant being to keep those eyes in his life, it was worth it. he liked katerina, cared for her and paid attention to what she said, far more than his brother seemed to, though his interaction was not inappropriate.

it wasn’t often he had to be strict or commanding over the younger sibling that so adored him, but a family christmas party changed that. isiaiah was showing off; acting like a prick to katerina for the sake of bolstering himself in his brother’s eyes. gabriel hated it. excusing himself and his brother with a charming smile, gabriel gripped isiaiah by the flesh on the underside of his arm and dragging him to a quiet section of the house, gabriel’s voice dropped low and dripped venom that had never before passed his lips in the presence of family: “if i ever fucking see you treat that girl like that ever again, i’ll drag you outside and break your face against the goddamn curb, got that?” he threw his brother’s arm and stormed back in before another word could be said, plastering on a smile as he went to keep danielle from pouring another drink.

danielle was always a big drinker, but her usage escalated well within their marriage. she got pregnant and while gabriel thought she was happy to be, she was not. behind his back she was taking doses of a prescription drug that halts progression of pregnancy. she lost the baby and gabe was devastated. he’d never really thought about being a father, but the when presented the prospect of it, excited him. he thought he could be a good father, not only because he was stable and happy, but because he loved the baby from the moment he got the news.

though hurt beyond measure, he was hopeful; they managed once, they could manage again when the time was right? if there was a god that saw his diligence, surely he’d bless them with another chance?

danielle’s guilt drove her to drink and drink heavily. she lied to the man she loved and couldn’t quiet the raging inner monologue that scorned save for drowning it at the bottom of a bottle. more than one argument came of gabe begging her to slow down and her subsequent refusal. he lost a child, he didn’t want to lose his wife, too. he stood with her through it all, hoping that one day everything would be better.

over a year later, happy news came once more. danielle was pregnant again, and she seemed elated. gabriel was over the moon. overnight everything seemed to improve: his wife had stopped drinking, he was going to be a father, they were a picture of happiness ready to work their lives around a new baby. not not everything was as it seemed.

one night, roused by a work call, gabriel realized his wife wasn’t in bed beside him. worried she might be feeling poorly from morning sickness he followed the trail of light into the bathroom and glanced in, just in time to watch danielle throw back a pill. he would have ignored it, but something in his gut told him otherwise. when he pushed the door open further, danielle jumped, frightened and caught off guard. the pill bottle fell to the floor and rolled to his feet. when he saw the label, he recognized the prescription name as a pregnancy terminator from a lawsuit he’d once worked.

his heart shattered in an instant. it’s important to note that gabriel never would have forced danielle to go through with a pregnancy she wasn’t comfortable in. and while it would have hurt, he would have accepted her decision with grace and understanding. it was the fact that she bold-face lied to him. she lied about being happy, she lied about wanting to build a life with him, she watched his grief and kept everything locked away, and was set on doing it again.

gabriel wordlessly moved back into the bedroom and got a suitcase to pack a bag. he wasn’t ready for a separation or divorce, he just couldn’t have her in his ear when he so desperately needed to think.

while his back was turned, danielle reached into his bedside table and pulled out a loaded gun he kept in case of emergencies and held it to his back. she demanded he hear her side of it before going anywhere. and so he did. for two days he was kept downstairs in the kitchen at gunpoint, allowed to do nothing except watch her drink and listen to her rant and beg his forgiveness.

she waved the gun around recklessly, throwing empty bottles on the wall behind him and the floor in front of his feet. he watched her do this with a distant, cold, dejected demeanor, never jumping or shying away from the blows she had to throw. he was hurting, more than he realized he ever could and numb to her wallowing. the suffering he felt was her cause, he was angry. hurt. he didn’t want to hear her, he didn’t want to look her in the eyes. there was a grim sense that they would both die there in that house, that she would put the gun to his temple and shoot and then die in any which way she chose to do.

it took all of his resolve and none of his might to realize that what he saw in her was a facade. for so long, he’d been the best he could be: for her, for his parents, even his undeserving brother. and where did it get him? alone. his parents never worried; he was the exalted heir, the good boy, they didn’t have cause. and his brother? he had taken all of gabriel’s shining example and corrupted it into nothing more than pretense to get where he needed to go before he commanded rule over dominion that was not his; an abusive, negligent tyrant no better than the pharaoh of egypt who let his people die for the sake of his pride. and his wife, the woman he’d devoted life and happiness to, turned on him with a glock aimed at his chest.

a beacon of hope came on the morning of the third day when his partner at the firm kept calling. when you’re a good lawyer, you make enemies with dangerous people. when you’re a great lawyer, you guarantee those enemies become lethal. gabe was a great lawyer. radio silence for two days was uncharacteristic for gabe, everyone had reason to worry. although the same could not be said for isaiah. danielle grew steadily more and more frustrated by the noise and gabriel told her to let him talk down the situation to keep the firm from calling again. she steadily agreed. it was the first time gabe had ever thanked god for making his wife an alcoholic.

for a long time, he and his partner established code words as a safety measure. different words had different meanings, the most rehearsed of which was BOOTH. as in john wilkes booth. as in someone was holding a gun to his head. so when gabriel said: “hey, i had to rush out of town for a family emergency, can you email me the details of the BOOTH case to look over when I get home?” danielle was none the wiser. but the partner knew to dial 911.

when the cops and ambulance showed up, everything went to shit. danielle panicked and shot the gun when they kicked in the door, frightening her into pulling the trigger. the bullet lodged in gabriel’s left shoulder and knocked him into the broken glass on the floor. realizing her mistake, she brought the gun to her head. the cops wrestled her down before she could pull the trigger for a second time.

once discharged from the hospital, gabriel drew up divorce papers, a restraining order, and a lawsuit. he got his divorce, he got the restraining order, and danielle was placed in prison.

gabriel left new york after that, electing to go back home to chicago. once back in the windy city, he looked for work as a private lawyer, one who wouldn’t join a firm until he could scope out which councilors he chose to have on his side and those he chose to fight.

working for the vasile family wasn’t planned, but he seemed to find his niche there. he’d seen plenty of violence in the world, he knew how ugly it could be, and he knew that even those closest to him were monsters in disguise. it was his time to chose to have on his side and who to fight for, rather than against.

seeing katerina again hadn’t been his motive, but he couldn’t say that those eyes wouldn’t bring just a little bit of light to his darkest days.