Chapter 3: What the Attorney Was Paid to Do
Preston picked up his glass again.
He didn't drink from it.
He just held it, turning it slowly, the way Natalie had seen him do in boardrooms when he needed another few seconds to construct an answer.
"That wire was a business matter," he said.
"Which business?"
"A legal consultation.
It's not relevant to the divorce."
"You paid $61,000 to a private attorney the day after you canceled my prenatal appointment." Natalie kept her voice level.
"Tell me which part of that isn't relevant."
Preston set the glass down.
"You're connecting things that aren't connected."
"Then help me disconnect them.
Give me the attorney's name."
He said nothing.
"Preston.
The name."
"I'm not going to stand here and be interrogated in my own home."
"You signed the divorce papers twenty minutes ago." Natalie picked up the wire confirmation from the table.
"It's not your home anymore.
It's a marital asset.
And this attorney is going to be very interesting to my lawyer."
Something shifted behind his eyes.
Not fear exactly.
Calculation.
"His name is Gerald Foss," Preston said.
"He handles sensitive business matters.
That's all it was."
Natalie had heard the name before.
She couldn't place it immediately.
She filed it away.
"What sensitive matter required $61,000 the day after our last appointment together?"
"I already told you—"
"You told me nothing.
You gave me a category." She folded the wire confirmation and placed it back in the envelope.
"I'm going to find out regardless.
I'm giving you the chance to tell me first."
Preston walked to the window.
The Manhattan skyline was fully lit now, the gray sunrise burned away.
He stood with his back to her, one hand in his pocket.
"There was a situation," he said finally.
"With the company.
A former employee making claims."
"What kind of claims?"
"Financial irregularities.
It was baseless.
Foss handled it quietly."
"Which former employee?"
Silence.
"Preston."
"It doesn't matter.
It's resolved."
Natalie looked at his back.
Twelve years of marriage.
She knew the difference between his silences.
The one when he was tired.
The one when he was annoyed.
The one when he was lying and knew she knew it.
This was the third kind.
"Was it someone at the company who found out about Sloan?" she asked.
He turned around.
"What?"
"The $61,000.
The private attorney.
The quiet resolution." She kept her eyes on his face.
"Was someone about to expose what you'd been moving through SMR, and you paid to make it go away?"
"That is not what happened."
"Then what happened?"
His jaw tightened.
"I protected the company.
That's what I do."
"With our daughter's money."
The words landed in the room and stayed there.
Preston looked at the envelope in Natalie's hands.
Then at her stomach.
Something crossed his face that might have been shame, but it moved through too quickly to be sure.
"I was going to replace it," he said.
"When?"
"After the quarter closed."
"You've said that before.
About other things." Natalie moved toward the hallway.
"I'm going to lie down.
My blood pressure has been high.
Dr.
Bennett's orders." She stopped at the doorway.
"When my attorney contacts Gerald Foss, I want you to know I already have the wire confirmation, the transfer records, and the registration documents for SMR Advisory Group.
Whatever Foss was paid to bury — we'll find it."
She left him standing at the window.
In the bedroom, she sat on the edge of the bed and opened her phone.
She searched Gerald Foss, attorney, New York.
The first result was a law firm profile.
Corporate litigation.
Dispute resolution.
Confidential settlements.
The second result was a news article from fourteen months ago.
She clicked it.
Her eyes moved to the third paragraph.
Gerald Foss had represented a financial firm in a wrongful termination case brought by a former compliance officer.
The case had been settled confidentially.
The compliance officer's name had been redacted.
Natalie read the firm's name.
Whitmore Capital Group.
She set the phone face-down on the bed and pressed both hands flat against her knees.
Someone inside Preston's own company had tried to report him.
He had paid $61,000 to silence them.
And then, eight months later, he had registered SMR Advisory Group LLC — the same month the compliance officer's case disappeared from public record.
The transfers hadn't started because of Sloan.
Sloan had started because the transfers were already there.
Natalie picked up her phone and called her attorney.
"Diana," she said when the line connected.
"I need you to find out everything you can about a wrongful termination case involving Whitmore Capital Group, approximately fourteen months ago.
The plaintiff was a compliance officer.
Gerald Foss represented Preston's side.
The settlement was confidential."
"I can do that," Diana said.
"How quickly do you need it?"
"Before he has time to call Foss himself."
A pause.
"I'll start now.
Are you all right?"
Natalie looked at the closed bedroom door.
"I will be," she said.
She ended the call and lay back against the pillows.
Her daughter moved — a slow, rolling shift beneath her ribs.
"I know," Natalie said quietly.
"I know."
Her phone lit up with a text from an unknown number.
*Mrs.
Whitmore.
My name is Claire Sutton.
I was the compliance officer at Whitmore Capital.
May you like
I've been waiting for someone to ask the right questions.
I think that's you.*
