Chapter 4
The discovery process was war.
Nolan's lawyers filed motion after motion. Delays. Extensions. Requests for more time.
Delia answered every one.
And the numbers kept getting worse.
We found my father's retirement account. $82,000. Cashed out four months after he died.
The distribution form had my signature.
Forged.
Delia sent it to a handwriting expert. He compared it to the HELOC. Same signature pattern. Same slight tremor. Same pen.
We found my father's savings account. $31,000. Transferred to a joint account Nolan controlled. Then gone.
We found the maintenance reserve Dad had set aside for the house. $12,000. Spent on a vacation.
Nolan told me he was at a work conference in Dallas.
The credit card receipt said Cabo San Lucas.
Two plane tickets.
One wasn't mine.
The name on the companion ticket: Lana Brooks.
Lana Brooks. His executive assistant.
I had met her at the company Christmas party. She had complimented my earrings. She had hugged me.
For five years, while I hand-washed her boss's underwear, she was sharing his hotel rooms.
I didn't cry.
I added her to the audit.
Delia subpoenaed Lana.
At first, she refused to talk. She had a lawyer. She was loyal.
Then Delia showed her something.
Emails. Nolan and Lana. Planning a future.
"Once the divorce is final, we'll sell the house and move to the condo."
That was from Nolan. Six months before I filed.
He had been planning to divorce me.
He had been planning to take everything.
Lana read that email. And she broke.
She gave Delia everything. Text messages. Voicemails. Bank records Nolan didn't know she had.
Including a secret account in the Cayman Islands.
$147,000.
Money Nolan had been siphoning from his construction company.
Embezzlement.
May you like
Delia looked at me.
"This just got a lot bigger than a divorce."
