I woke up Monday morning in a cold sweat. I had just suffered through another fitful night of sleep. I had been experiencing a recurring nightmare, one where I heard my ex-wife's shrill voice over and over, telling me that she hated my guts, and that she was leaving me for good.

I sat upright in my brand-new bed, staring at the four empty walls in my brand-new apartment that I had only moved into over the weekend. That terrible dream had been a dreary reality many months ago. I was finally at peace with it when conscious, but the abruptness of it all still occasionally haunted me at night....