The room was dead silent.
Vanessa’s complexion faded to ghost white.
Daniel continued to stare at Vanessa. “Something you want to divulge to me?”
Vanessa did not respond.
In the absence of a response to such a forthright inquiry, silence became the answer.
Daniel then received a phone call.
Stepping out of the ultrasound room into the hall, Daniel abruptly answered the phone. Robert was on the other end of the call.
Robert relayed that due to undeclared businesses, offshore accounts and hidden assets the divorce financial disclosures were in the process of being formally reviewed; as such many of the accounts had been frozen and the valuation of assets would be re-evaluated.
Two disasters were re-entering the ultrasound room with Daniel.
One — the unborn child they were celebrating might not belong to him; Two — the divorce settlement that Daniel had believed he had won was falling apart.
In less than an hour, Daniel’s future changed dramatically.
Later, that evening Daniel sent me a text message.
Daniel sent, “What did you do?”
I held on to the message for an extended while.
Some questions will never warrant a response; others are simply the response of a person realizing they’ve lost control.
I chose not to respond back.
Setting the phone down, I returned my focus back to the stove. Lily was working with Noah on a homework assignment, and Ethan was washing dishes without being prompted to do so.
“Mom,” Lily asked, “are we okay?”
I placed my hand gently on Lily’s shoulder.
“Yes, sweetheart,” I said.I didn’t have to try as hard to believe it than I did previously.
In the early hours of the morning, while our children slept, I received another message asking me whether I believed this was over.
I already knew it wasn’t over.
Consequences do not come all at once; they come slowly, like every other plan I set in motion.
By morning Daniel’s world was going to be shaken. Not in broad daylight—quietly through his lawyer, banker, and partners using careful questioning that did not appear as if they were asking a question.
Robert called me.
“He’s trying to do something with his money. He’s moved money. But the accounts are flagged.”
And the business?
“The partners are asking questions. Some are backing away until they have a better understanding of what is going on.”
People are loyal to people until they can see the possibility of risk.
A little bit later, Vanessa called me.
I nearly didn’t answer the call.
“Emily,” she said quietly.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“I didn’t know,” she said. “About the accounts and everything.”
“I didn’t think you did.”
“They’re saying that the baby isn’t his.”
“I know.”
“I swear to God that I thought it was going to be fine. I didn’t plan for this.”
Her tone had uncertainty, not innocence. It was a tone of uncertainty, which happens when the story you have been telling yourself is beginning to fall apart.
“Vanessa,” I said in a soft voice, “this is something I cannot help you with.”
“I know, I just thought that there was someone I could talk to who would understand.”
“I am going to hope that you can work through this,” I said.
And I truly meant this. Not because I owed her my kindness or anything else, but because the painful truth is better than the lie you are living in.After several days without hearing from Daniel, he had changed his mode of communication and was no longer attempting to contact me in the same manner.
He had changed his approach. He requested that Robert, his lawyer who represented him for the case, reach out to me to discuss the pending case; however, this request was not unexpected by me, nor were any of the provisions of the upcoming discussion. Due to my knowledge of what to expect from Daniel, it was easy for me to infer the reason for Daniel’s request.
Daniel’s lawyer reached out and said to me that Daniel would like to schedule a meeting to revisit the terms of the settlement. As I had already indicated, I would prefer to discuss the matter with my attorney prior to agreeing to any further terms of the settlement.
With that said, I had no qualms with meeting with Daniel and his attorney if it meant bringing the parties involved in this matter back to the original terms of the settlement agreement.
“Daniel and his lawyer are suggesting a meeting,” he stated.
I asked him for his recommendation regarding the meeting. Robert replied, “We will continue as we had before.”
I agreed to Robert’s response. I asked him whether he thought that I was still interested in settling my lawsuit against Daniel and Robert, and he answered, “You already have agreed to a settlement.”
As we continued to meet in the following weeks, many meetings between Daniel, Robert and Alison with respect to the case took place and many times during these meetings Daniel’s attorney reviewed the factual basis of the claim against Daniel and Roberts, and eventually the version of the account presented by Daniel replaced the version presented by Roberts.
I did not want to be overly demanding or unreasonable with respect to the settlement I was to enter into with Daniel and Roberts; however, I did not want to enter into an agreement that was beneath me or that would not permit me to prove my case based upon the evidence that existed in the case file.