Chapter 3 - THE DIVORCE PAPERS
By midnight, the gala had become financial news.
Not because my father wanted spectacle.
Because public companies leak fear faster than champagne.
Vance Group shares were halted in after-hours trading after lenders demanded clarification regarding undisclosed guarantees and a failed acquisition financing package.
Julian left through a side entrance.
Victoria followed.
Genevieve did not.
She spent three hours answering questions before leaving with counsel.
Maya fell asleep in my father’s suite at the Grand Aster with an ice pack wrapped in a towel against her cheek.
I sat beside her.
Alexander entered quietly.
For several minutes, neither of us spoke.
Then he said:
“You’re thin.”
I laughed.
Of all the things.
“Hello to you too, Dad.”
His face broke.
Six years collapsed in one word.
Dad.
He sat.
“I wanted to come.”
“When?”
“Every day.”
“You knew where I was.”
“Yes.”
“You knew things were bad?”
“No.”
That answer mattered.
He continued.
“I knew Julian was borrowing too aggressively. I knew his family treated you poorly in public. I did not know what happened inside your home.”
“Would you have intervened?”
“Yes.”
“Even though I told you not to?”
“Yes.”
I smiled sadly.
“Still impossible.”
“So are you.”
Maya moved in her sleep.
Alexander’s expression softened.
“I should have found a way to stay near her.”
“You respected my boundary.”
“Too well.”
“No.”
I looked at him.
“Don’t turn my choices into your guilt.”
That was mine to carry.
Then I corrected myself.
Not guilt.
Responsibility.
I had stayed.
But I would not let that truth become a weapon against myself either.
People stay for complicated reasons.
Love.
Fear.
Hope.
Children.
Isolation.
Financial information hidden from them.
I had made a mistake.
I had also been manipulated.
Both could be true.
---
At nine the next morning, my attorney Margaret Sloan arrived.
She had represented Blackwood family interests for twenty-seven years.
She placed Julian’s divorce packet on the table.
“Where did he get this?”
“His attorney.”
“His attorney should consider another career.”
I smiled.
“Bad?”
“Worse. Amateur.”
The papers attempted to characterize nearly all marital assets as Julian’s separate property while demanding I waive support, equity, and business claims.
Fine.
I wanted none of his company.
Then Margaret reached page seventeen.
She stopped.
“What?”
“This.”
There was an asset disclosure clause.
Julian had certified that all material debts, guarantees, liens, and contingent obligations had been disclosed to me.
They had not.
That mattered because the Vance Group loans were not merely corporate.
Julian had pledged marital assets and a family trust interest without disclosure.
His settlement proposal contained representations that were already demonstrably false.
“He lied in his own paperwork?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because men who believe their wives know nothing rarely prepare for wives who hire lawyers.”
Fair.
Then Margaret asked:
“Do you want the divorce?”
“Yes.”
“Annulment might be possible depending on evidence.”
“No.”
She looked surprised.
“I married him.”
I wanted the record to reflect that.
“I chose him. He failed the marriage. I’m not erasing that I was there.”
Margaret nodded.
“Divorce.”
“Yes.”
Then:
“And sole physical custody?”
“Yes.”
“Supervised contact?”
I looked at Maya.
My throat tightened.
“I don’t know.”
Good.
I was done pretending certainty where none existed.
“Let the child specialist assess.”
Margaret nodded.
“We can request temporary protective orders.”
“Do it.”
---
At eleven, another problem appeared.
Genevieve’s attorney claimed the video was misleading.
She insisted Maya struck her first.
A five-year-old.
Of course.
Then Harrison delivered the full footage.
Maya had accidentally bumped into Genevieve while running toward me.
A glass of cranberry juice spilled onto Genevieve’s dress.
Genevieve grabbed Maya’s arm.
Maya apologized.
Genevieve slapped her.
Maya tried to pull away.
Genevieve struck her again.
Julian watched.
Victoria entered after.
No ambiguity.
The investigation continued.
I refused media interviews.
My father’s communications team hated that.
Good.
The public did not need Maya’s trauma as entertainment.
Alexander released one sentence:
Our family’s priority is the safety and privacy of a child. All other matters will be addressed through appropriate legal and corporate processes.
No names.
No threats.
No billion-dollar chest beating.
May you like
Better.
---
