Chapter 10: The Mistake He Made at the Title Office
Julian's mistake was a property on Calloway Lane.
It was a small commercial building he had purchased three years earlier, before we married, and it was registered solely in his name.
Diane had flagged it as outside the freeze parameters — technically separate from marital assets.
What Julian didn't know was that Diane had asked a forensic accountant named Roy Ellison to trace the funding source for the original purchase.
Roy found it in eleven hours.
The down payment had come from an account that, at the time of the purchase, was jointly held by Julian and his then-girlfriend.
That girlfriend was me.
We had opened it together six months before the wedding to save for a honeymoon.
I had forgotten about it entirely.
Julian had not.
He had used $47,000 of that money to purchase the Calloway Lane property without telling me, then closed the account two weeks later and told me the bank had merged it into our joint savings.
I had believed him.
Roy found the original transfer records in the bank's archived statements.
"He committed fr@ud," Diane said, setting Roy's report on the desk between us.
"Against you, specifically.
This isn't a marital asset dispute anymore.
This is a crjminal matter."
I looked at the transfer record.
The date.
The amount.
My name on the original account.
"He planned this before we were even married," I said.
"It appears so." Diane folded her hands.
"I've already spoken with a contact at the district attorney's office.
They're interested."
Two days later, I was sitting in Caleb's kitchen when Diane called.
"They executed the warrant this morning," she said.
"His attorney is already asking for a continuance."
"Did they get the financial records?"
"All of it.
The server records from the LLCs, the transfer history, the Calloway Lane documentation." A pause.
"Roy also found a fifth LLC we hadn't identified.
It held another $180,000."
I looked through the kitchen window at the street below.
A woman was walking a dog.
A child was riding a scooter on the pavement.
"Diane," I said.
"Is it done?"
"The fr@ud case is open and moving," she said.
"The protective order is in place.
The asset freeze holds.
The divorce filing goes in Monday." She paused again.
"Clara — it's done."
I set the phone on the table.
Caleb was standing in the doorway.
He had heard enough.
"Okay?" he said.
"Okay," I said.
He came and sat across from me.
We didn't say anything else for a while.
May you like
Outside, the child on the scooter made a wide loop around a crack in the pavement, laughing at something only she could see.
My daughter kicked twice, hard, as if she agreed.
