Chapter 7: Eric Makes His Move
Patricia filed the emergency motion on a Thursday.
It asked the court to freeze all assets connected to Eric, to Trident Advisory Group, and to any account bearing his name or signature — including the offshore transfer Douglas had described, which had not yet been completed.
The filing also included Douglas's signed statement, Cara's written account, the bank records, the location data, and the voicemail.
Eric's attorney called Patricia within two hours of the filing.
She relayed the conversation to me that afternoon.
"He's claiming the LLC was a legitimate business venture and that the transfers were standard operating expenses.
He's also claiming that you knew about the account and consented to it."
"That's not true."
"I know.
That's why we have eleven months of statements showing transfers that were never disclosed on any joint financial document you signed." Patricia's voice was dry.
"His attorney also suggested that your mental state following the birth might be relevant to how the court views your testimony."
I was quiet for a moment.
"He's going to use the birth against me."
"He's going to try.
It won't work.
But I want you prepared for it."
I thought about the hospital room.
The contraction.
His voice in my ear telling me to be quiet.
"Let him try," I said.
Two days later, Eric came to the house.
I saw his car from the upstairs window.
I called Patricia immediately.
"Don't open the door," she said.
"If he has no legal right to enter and you haven't agreed to a visit, he has no standing.
Call me back if he doesn't leave within ten minutes."
I watched from the window.
He sat in the car for a while.
Then he got out and rang the bell.
My mother answered it.
I heard their voices from the top of the stairs but couldn't make out the words.
Then the door closed.
My mother came upstairs.
"He wants five minutes with you.
He says it's not about the case."
"It's always about the case."
"I know." She paused.
"He looked scared, sweetheart."
"Good."
She nodded once and went back downstairs.
I heard the front door open again, and then Eric's voice, and then my mother's, firm and final.
The door closed a second time.
His car started.
He left.
He sent a text twenty minutes later.
*You're making a mistake.
There are people involved in this that you don't know about.
I was protecting all of us.
I need you to hear that.*
I read it three times.
Then I screenshotted it and sent it to Patricia.
She called back within the hour.
"Protecting all of us," she said.
"That's an interesting phrase."
"It's what he said in the living room too.
When I showed him the bank statements.
He said he was protecting himself."
"Now it's all of us." Patricia paused.
"Either he's trying to manipulate you into backing down, or there's something else going on with that LLC that we haven't found yet."
"Which do you think it is?"
"I think both things can be true," she said.
"I've asked for a full forensic audit of Trident Advisory Group.
If there's something else in there, we'll find it."
That night, after the babies were down and my mother was asleep in the guest room and my sister had gone home, I sat at the kitchen table with a cup of tea that went cold without me drinking it.
I thought about the man I had married.
The one who had been over the moon at the ultrasound.
Who had stood in the kitchen the night we found out and cried — actually cried — and said he couldn't believe how lucky he was.
I didn't know when that man had become this one.
Maybe he had always been this one, and the other version had just been the performance he gave until he didn't need to anymore.
My phone lit up on the table.
A text from Douglas Farr.
*He called me tonight.
He knows I talked to you.
He said if I cooperate with your attorney he'll tell the licensing board I falsified records for him.
He has documents.
I don't know if they're real.*
I stared at the screen.
May you like
Eric wasn't just afraid.
He was fighting back.
