Chapter 3 - THE MONEY BEHIND THE LIES
Michael arrived at the hospital the next morning.
He brought two attorneys.
One specialized in family law.
The other specialized in financial investigations.
I sat beside Noah's incubator while they explained everything.
Daniel's company had been profitable for years.
But over the previous eighteen months, millions had moved through shell companies.
Some belonged to Daniel.
Some belonged to people connected to Celeste.
One company had purchased a luxury property in Miami.
Another had acquired shares in a Caribbean development project.
The strangest transfer involved an account created only three weeks before Noah's birth.
Michael placed the document in front of me.
“Do you recognize this?”
I stared.
My signature appeared at the bottom.
“No.”
“It looks like your signature.”
“It isn't.”
He nodded.
“We suspected that.”
I looked at the document again.
Someone had forged my signature.
“What is this?”
“A transfer authorization.”
“For how much?”
“$2.7 million.”
I felt sick.
“Where did it go?”
Michael looked at the financial attorney.
“An account controlled by Celeste.”
I closed my eyes.
Then remembered something.
Daniel had asked me to sign several documents while I was pregnant.
“Routine company paperwork,” he'd said.
I hadn't read them.
I trusted him.
That trust now looked like stupidity.
But Michael shook his head.
“Don't blame yourself.”
“I should have known.”
“You were pregnant.”
“I was a lawyer.”
“You were his wife.”
That sentence hurt more than he intended.
Because that had been my problem.
I had acted like his wife when he had been treating me like an opponent.
Michael leaned closer.
“There is one thing you need to understand.”
“What?”
“Daniel may have wanted you to discover the affair.”
I stared at him.
“Why?”
“To make you angry enough to leave voluntarily.”
“Why would he want that?”
“Because if you initiate the divorce, he can frame the financial separation differently.”
I looked toward Noah.
“What is he trying to take?”
“Your marital assets.”
I swallowed.
“Anything else?”
Michael hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Tell me.”
“Custody.”
My blood ran cold.
He explained.
Daniel's family had already spoken to a private investigator.
They were building a case suggesting I was unstable after childbirth.
The photographs.
The hospital records.
My exhaustion.
Every emotional moment.
They intended to use my postpartum recovery against me.
I looked at Noah.
Then something changed.
I wasn't fighting for my marriage anymore.
I was fighting for my son.
“Michael?”
“Yes?”
“Find everything.”
He nodded.
“Everything?”
“Everything.”
I looked at the photograph of Daniel smiling beside Celeste.
“Because if they want a war…”
May you like
I folded the document.
“I'll give them one.”
