Chapter 10: The Hearing
The financial disclosure hearing was six weeks later.
Paul had prepared me carefully.
We sat on one side of a long conference table in the courthouse annex — me, Paul, and a paralegal named Grace who had spent three weeks organizing every document into a binder so clean it looked like it had been printed that morning.
Ethan sat across from us with his attorney, a man named Garrett who wore a very good suit and had the practiced calm of someone paid to project it.
Ethan didn't look at me when he came in.
The mediator — a woman named Judge Holloway, retired family court — opened the session and went through the procedural requirements.
Then she turned to Garrett.
"Your client has submitted a financial disclosure," she said.
"I've reviewed it.
I have some questions."
Garrett nodded smoothly.
"Of course."
"The disclosure lists a personal account with a current balance of approximately forty-two thousand dollars.
It does not list any business entities." She looked at Ethan directly.
"Mr.
Calloway, are you currently or have you in the past three years been an officer, director, or registered agent of any business entity in the state of Colorado?"
Ethan glanced at Garrett.
"My client—" Garrett began.
"I'm asking your client," Judge Holloway said pleasantly.
Ethan cleared his throat.
"I had a consulting arrangement.
It was inactive."
"Was it registered as a business entity?"
A pause.
"Yes."
"And why does that entity not appear in your financial disclosure?"
"It was inactive.
There were no significant—"
Paul slid a document across the table.
"For the record, this is the registration filing for Hale Meridian Consulting LLC, registered in Colorado, with Ethan Calloway listed as registered agent.
And this—" he slid a second document, "—is a routing record showing a transfer of eight thousand dollars from the agency disbursement account into Hale Meridian's operating account on the date of the first surrogacy compensation payment."
Garrett leaned over to Ethan and said something very quietly.
Ethan said nothing.
"Mr.
Calloway," Judge Holloway said.
"I'm going to ask you to amend your financial disclosure before we continue.
And I'm going to note for the record that the omission of a registered business entity from a court-ordered financial disclosure is a matter I take seriously." She set her pen down.
"We'll take a fifteen-minute recess."
During the recess, Paul leaned close to me.
"He's going to amend.
He has no choice.
When the full account history comes out, we'll see everything."
"Will it be enough?" I asked.
"It's already enough," Paul said.
"The question now is how much."
When we reconvened, Garrett spoke first.
"My client wishes to revise his settlement offer," he said.
"Substantially."
Judge Holloway looked at him over her glasses.
"I imagine he does."
I looked at Ethan then.
For the first time since we'd sat down, he looked back at me.
His expression wasn't angry.
It wasn't calculating.
It was something I hadn't expected.
It was tired.
He looked like a man who had been holding something very heavy for a very long time and had finally, in this room, set it down.
I didn't feel sorry for him.
But I understood it.
The exhaustion of a lie that had grown too large to carry.
Garrett slid a new document across the table.
Paul read it.
Then he slid it to me.
I read it.
May you like
Then I looked at Paul.
"Yes," I said.
