Chapter 8 - The Settlement Offer
In early January, a thick white envelope arrived at Eleanor Vance’s office. It was a formal settlement proposal from Daniel’s legal counsel.
I sat in Eleanor’s bright, sunny office overlooking the river, drinking a cup of warm tea while she reviewed the terms line by line.
"He’s offering to give up his equity share in the marital residence," Eleanor said, looking over her reading glasses at me. "In exchange, he wants you to waive all claims to his retirement accounts, waive all back-pay for the twelve thousand dollars stolen from Noah’s college fund, and agree to a joint legal custody arrangement with unsupervised weekend visitations."
I took a slow sip of my tea. "What about Lorraine?"
"The agreement includes a proposed clause stating that the child shall not be restricted from contact with paternal family members during the father's custodial time."
"No," I said instantly, setting my cup down on the glass coffee table with a firm clink.
"I knew you'd say that," Eleanor smiled faintly, pulling a red pen from her jacket pocket. "And legally, we have the upper hand. The forensic audit of your joint accounts came back yesterday, Emily. We found three additional unauthorized transfers Daniel made to his mother over the last eighteen months, totaling twenty-eight thousand dollars."
I leaned forward. "So he stole forty thousand dollars from our family to fund her life."
"Precisely. Which means if we go to a final trial, the judge will not only award you the full equity of the house to offset the dissipated assets, but Daniel will also be ordered to repay Noah’s college fund out of his personal retirement division."
"I don't care about the retirement money, Eleanor," I said firmly, my eyes locking onto hers. "I care about Noah’s safety. Daniel has proven that he cannot protect our son when his mother is in the room. I will not send Noah to a cramped apartment where that woman can whisper poison into his ear every weekend."
"Then we issue a counter-proposal," Eleanor said, her red pen flying across the white paper. "Full sole legal and physical custody to you. Supervised visitation for Daniel—and only Daniel—at a third-party family center, with an absolute, legally binding restraining order barring Lorraine Miller from being within five hundred feet of Noah at any time."
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"Will he sign that?" I asked.
Eleanor leaned back in her chair, a sharp, brilliant smile touching her lips. "Daniel is facing felony charges for financial dissipation of marital assets if we push this to trial. His attorney knows it, and more importantly, Daniel is broke. He can't afford to keep paying Richard Vance three hundred dollars an hour to fight a war he’s already lost."
