Chapter 8: The Weight of Seventeen Years
Grace filed the emergency motion that afternoon.
By the following morning, a judge had signed a temporary order: the joint accounts were unfrozen, Richard was required to maintain financial support at the current household level pending the full hearing, and a forensic accountant named Mr.
Delaney was appointed to review all marital assets.
Richard's attorney called Grace within the hour.
Grace relayed the conversation to me that evening, sitting across from me at Paula's kitchen table with her yellow legal pad open.
"He said his client is willing to negotiate a reasonable settlement," Grace said.
"He used the word reasonable three times."
"What does reasonable mean to Richard?"
"Sixty-forty split of liquid assets in his favor, primary residence to him, primary custody to him with generous visitation for you." Grace's expression was neutral.
"He also said his client has concerns about parental alienation, given the events at the school ceremony."
I looked at her.
"He's going to claim I coached the children."
"He's going to try." Grace set her pen down.
"Here is what I want you to understand.
He made that offer within one hour of receiving the court order.
A man who was confident in his position does not move that fast.
He is trying to settle before Mr.
Delaney looks at the accounts."
"Because of what he moved."
"Because of what he moved," Grace confirmed.
"We don't have the full picture yet.
But the early review shows three years of transfers — small amounts, irregular intervals — into a holding account registered to a numbered company.
The total is not small."
"How much?"
Grace looked at me steadily.
"Just over four hundred thousand dollars."
The kitchen was quiet.
Paula, standing at the counter, put her mug down.
"He was building an exit," I said.
"He was building an exit," Grace said.
"Which means he was planning to leave you, Carol.
On his own timeline, with his own preparation, in a way that would have left you with very little."
I thought about the kitchen.
The conversation I'd had with him that Daniel had recorded.
*Divorce would be terrible for my reputation.* He'd said that to buy time.
To keep me in place while he moved the money.
"What happens now?" I asked.
"Now," Grace said, "we let Mr.
Delaney finish his review.
And then we walk into that hearing with four hundred thousand reasons why Richard's offer of sixty-forty is not a conversation we're interested in having."
She picked up her pen.
"There's one more thing," she said.
"Janet Marsh called me this afternoon.
Owen Calloway is prepared to provide a sworn statement.
His NDA has been reviewed by two attorneys and is likely unenforceable — it was signed under conditions that constitute financial coercion." Grace looked at me.
"This won't directly affect your divorce settlement.
But it will affect Richard's reputation in this town in a way that no Parent of the Year award can repair."
I thought about Richard on that stage.
The expensive suit.
The wiped eyes.
*There are nights I barely sleep.*
"Let Owen give his statement," I said.
Grace nodded and wrote something down.
From the spare room down the hall, I could hear Lily's voice — she was telling one of her brothers a story, something about a princess who lived in a tower and knew how to pick the lock herself.
Paula caught my eye across the kitchen.
May you like
Neither of us said anything.
We didn't need to.
