Chapter 4

"Don't take it too hard. You're still the one in his heart. All these years, has he ever shortchanged you?" Mary said.

"Mary, he kept a woman on the side for three years and got her pregnant," I said.

"I know, I know. But can she ever measure up to you? You're the wife. You've got the ring, the kids, the home. She's nothing. Just some fling. She's not a threat."

"So you're saying I should let it go?"

"I'm not telling you to forgive him. I'm just asking—can't you be the bigger person? Men make mistakes. Push him too far, and the family breaks. The kids are the ones who pay."

Yeah. Right.

I listened and nearly laughed out loud.

When he was funding his mistress, did he worry about breaking the family?

When he got her pregnant, did he think about what it would do to the kids?

And now I was the one who was supposed to rise above it.

"I'll think about it, Mary," I said.

I ended the call.

Then I texted Fiona Sinclair, my old college roommate who was now a lawyer. [You around? Need to talk divorce and how assets get divided.]

She came over, sat at my kitchen table, and went through the folder I'd prepared: bank statements, transfer records, the deed to the 400k condo in Madeline's name.

She stayed quiet for a long time.

Finally she looked up. "Delilah, you're actually in a really strong position here."

"How so?"

"First off, the house is yours alone. You bought it before you got married, your parents covered the down payment, and it's only in your name. He doesn't touch it."

"Okay."

"Second, the cheating is ironclad, and there's a kid. That makes him the at-fault party. Courts don't mess around with that anymore. When it comes to dividing assets, the one who blew up the marriage usually ends up with a smaller slice."

"How much smaller?"

"Depends on the judge. But with solid evidence, you could easily knock ten to thirty percent off his share."

"What about the money he funneled to her?"

"That one's trickier. If he used marital funds to buy her a condo or a car, you can try to claw it back. But you'll need proof."

The bank statements flashed through my mind. The transfer records. The deed with Madeline's name on it.

"I've got the bank statements," I said.

"That's a great start," Fiona said. "You'll also need the property deed, the car title, purchase contracts, stuff like that. Think you can get your hands on them?"

"I'll try."

Fiona studied me for a moment, hesitating.

"There's something else, isn't there?" I prompted.

She sighed. "Yeah. I have to warn you.

"He's pulling in about seven hundred grand a year and he's got real money stashed away. The minute he realizes you're serious about walking, he'll start moving assets around.

"You need to act fast. Don't give him time to hide anything."

I nodded.

"One more thing," she said.

"Shoot."

"You both work at the same company. He's sales director, you're finance director. Equity, stock options, bonuses—those all get split too. You should nail down exactly what he's got before you file."

I paused for a second.

"I already looked into it," I said.

"How much we talking?" Fiona asked.

"Equity and options combined, roughly 1.5 million on paper."

Fiona frowned. "Ten years at the company, topping out at seven hundred K a year, and that's all he's got?"

"Yeah. The rest is gone."

A four-hundred-thousand-dollar condo in Madeline's name. A hundred-twenty-grand car. Seventeen grand a month for three years on dinners, hotels, trips, whatever else they got up to.

Every dollar poured into her.

"There's one other thing," I said.

"What's that?" Fiona asked.

"When he started the company, I backed him. Put in about three hundred thirty thousand over the first couple of years. It took off, but he never paid me back."

"Any paperwork? Promissory note, anything?"

"No. We were married. Who thinks to get that in writing?"

Fiona exhaled slowly. "Delilah, I'm just going to say it straight. These past ten years? You got totally screwed."

I gave a small, bitter smile.

Yeah, I did.

I'd put almost three million dollars of my money, my time, my life.

And what did I have to show for it?

A cheating husband. A pregnant mistress. A mother-in-law telling me to "be the bigger person."

An entire company that knew about the affair while I was the only one in the dark. The punchline everyone else got.