Chapter 9 - The Hearing
The courtroom was smaller than I'd imagined.
Grant came in with his attorney — a man in a gray suit who shook Marlene's hand without meeting her eyes. Grant looked at me once. I looked back. Neither of us said anything.
Marlene had prepped me for every angle. His lawyer would argue the transfers were just discretionary savings, not concealment. They'd call the note vague. They might take a swing at my own financial behavior during the marriage.
What she hadn't prepped me for — because she hadn't known it was coming — was that Grant's attorney would open by asking for a continuance.
"My client has recently come into information relevant to the paternity of the unborn child," the attorney said. "We believe that should be resolved before the financial proceedings go forward."
The room went dead still.
Marlene was on her feet instantly. "This is a stall. There is no pending paternity action. Counsel is floating an unsubstantiated claim to delay a hearing my client has backed with substantial documentary evidence."
The judge — a woman in her sixties, reading glasses on a chain — looked at Grant's lawyer over the top of the frames.
"Do you have a filed paternity action?"
"Not yet, Your Honor. We intend—"
"Then I'm not interested in your intentions. The continuance is denied." She set the glasses down. "Let's proceed."
Grant's lawyer sat. Grant stared at the table.
Marlene laid it all out. The transfer history. The account statements. The note Janet found. The statement Melissa handed over. Calm, in order, no theatrics.
Grant's attorney argued the money was savings Grant had always meant to disclose during proceedings. No deceptive intent.
Marlene asked Grant one question on cross.
"When did you intend to tell your wife about this account?"
Grant glanced at his lawyer. The lawyer gave a small nod.
"I was going to disclose it in mediation," Grant said.
"The mediation you proposed to your wife four days after she found out about your affair?"
"Yes."
"The mediation you proposed before you'd hired a lawyer, before any formal filing, and before your wife knew this account existed at all?"
"I — yes."
"So the plan was to disclose a hidden account, informally, with no legal oversight, to a woman who didn't yet know it was there."
Grant said nothing.
"Thank you," Marlene said. "No further questions."
The judge ordered a full forensic accounting of every marital asset. She froze the secondary account pending the outcome. She noted on the record that the pattern of transfers, together with the documents, pointed to intentional concealment, and that it would weigh on the final division.
Grant's lawyer leaned in and murmured to him as the session broke up. Grant nodded. His face was blank.
On the way out, he stopped beside me in the hallway.
"I want you to know," he said quietly, "I did love you. That part was real."
I looked at him a moment.
May you like
"I know it was," I said. "That's the part that was worth saving. And you're the one who threw it out."
I walked out into the afternoon with Marlene beside me.
