Chapter 10: Everything He Had Hidden
Patricia moved fast.
Within a week, she had filed a motion for full financial disclosure and requested a forensic accountant through the court.
Eric's attorney — a man named Garfield who wore expensive shoes and spoke in a tone that suggested he found everyone around him slightly tedious — filed an objection.
The judge overruled it in four minutes.
The forensic accountant's name was Dennis.
He was quiet and methodical and wore the same gray cardigan every time I saw him, and he had a way of describing financial concealment that made it sound almost boring, which somehow made it worse.
He found three accounts.
The first was a personal savings account Eric had opened six years ago — two years into our marriage — with an initial deposit of eight thousand dollars.
It had grown steadily.
The balance when Dennis found it was sixty-one thousand dollars.
The second was a business account tied to a consulting LLC Eric had registered in another state.
I had not known the LLC existed.
Eric had been routing a portion of his consulting income through it for four years.
The third was smaller.
A few thousand dollars.
But it was in a joint name.
Not my name.
Laura Voss's name.
I was sitting in Patricia's office when Dennis read that one aloud.
"He opened a joint account with her?" I said.
Dennis looked at his papers.
"Eleven months ago.
Deposits were irregular but consistent.
The account is still open."
"He told her he was ending his marriage," I said.
"He was building a financial life with her at the same time he was building one with me."
"It appears so," Dennis said.
Patricia was writing steadily.
"This changes the asset picture significantly," she said.
"The concealed income alone — we're looking at a substantial marital asset claim."
"How substantial?" I asked.
She looked at Dennis.
"Conservatively," Dennis said, "accounting for the hidden income, the diverted savings, and the marital share of the LLC, you're looking at somewhere between two hundred and two hundred and forty thousand dollars in undisclosed assets."
The number sat in the room.
"He moved forty thousand three weeks before I filed," I said.
"Which is now part of the record," Patricia said.
"His attorney is going to argue it was legitimate business activity.
We're going to argue dissipation of marital assets.
Given the timing and the pattern, I like our position."
I thought about the jars.
I thought about Eric at the refrigerator, methodically working through every single lid.
The face mask.
The food coloring.
The artichoke hearts he hated.
Not one missed.
A system.
"He planned all of this," I said.
"Not just the affair.
The money.
The LLC.
The separate account.
He was planning to leave and he was making sure I'd have as little as possible when he did."
"Yes," Patricia said simply.
"That's what the evidence suggests."
I looked at her.
"Can we prove it?"
"We already have," she said.
"Dennis just did."
My phone buzzed.
A text from Eric.
*I think we should talk about settling this without dragging it through court.
For everyone's sake.*
I showed it to Patricia.
She read it and set the phone down.
"He's scared," she said.
"That's what that is."
May you like
"Good," I said.
And I meant it.
