Chapter 23
MARTYRDOM
This is starting to drag. Leave his cheating ass already.
It’s not that simple. Leaving takes time and money. She’s got no credit, no savings, and like a month of work history. If she leaves now, she could lose the girls.
No judge would take her daughters away. That’s ridiculous. Besides, she’s entitled to alimony.
Alimony is not guaranteed. And the judge absolutely could opt to give Josh custody if she has no means to support them.
Custody?? What about the work fraud? She could probably put him in prison!
Ah, yes, prison alimony. Very sustainable.
Walking back into Richard Mitchell’s office felt different the second time around.
The wealth of the room felt less intimidating and more accommodating.
Eliana no longer felt like a clueless, floundering girl as she settled into the plush leather chair—but rather a woman on a journey to rediscovering herself.
And this time, she wasn’t alone. Sitting to her left was Milo, one long leg bent at an angle as he rested an ankle on his knee. It was a relaxed pose, but he held his body tense as he eyed the lawyer across the behemoth of a desk.
And to Eliana’s right sat Clem, whose gaze was also locked on Richard, though it appeared she had differing motivations.
Clem almost always wore her hair loose and wild, but on this day, it was pulled into a severe bun, her glasses perched on her nose.
Even her makeup was applied with a heavier hand than normal, sharpening the angles of her face and shadowing her eyes with a smoky cat-eye.
If Eliana didn’t know better, she’d say that Clem was in disguise. But it couldn’t be for the lawyer’s sake. She had just appeared in town barely an hour ago, asking if Eliana was able to meet for an urgent matter.
Eliana’s brows rose as she turned back to Richard, noticing the way he was sizing up her friend in response, Milo and her all but forgotten.
“This is Clem, the friend I told you about.” Eliana introduced, breaking the silence. “And this is Milo, my friend, employer, and neighbor. Oh—and the husband of the woman who Jesse is actively sleeping with.”
“Soon to be ex-husband,” Milo clarified.
“Okay.” Richard blinked, turning back to Eliana. “That’s a lot of labels.” He scratched his chin, glancing once more at Clem before asking, “So, why are Clem and Milo joining us today?”
“Because Milo is much more knowledgeable than I am in these matters and has insights that I may not think to consider, and Clem brought new information for us to review. She got pulled in at the last minute.”
“I wasn’t aware it was a legal meeting,” Clem groused, side-eyeing Eliana, who flashed the most innocent smile at her disposal.
“Can I see what you’ve found now?” Eliana asked.
Clem sighed, pulling out a folder and handing it over.
Eliana’s eyes widened at the first document—the bank account summary.
The expenses were normal household payments.
Nothing appeared to be out of order, and yet, there was less than three hundred dollars between checking and savings.
Even despite the hefty weekly deposits from Jesse’s employer.
And just below the main home loan, there was a secondary loan taken out against the equity they’d built over the last ten years.
The only thing that remained seemingly untouched was the secondary savings, intended for the girls’ college years, but Eliana would never target such a fund, other than for the purpose of getting it away from Jesse.
She shook her head and passed the stack of bank documents to Milo, who then passed them to Richard, as Eliana moved to the next stack.
A statement from one of Jesse’s credit cards was on top.
She flipped to the second one, then the third.
She froze, staring down at the outrageous numbers before her.
Long after papers had stopped being shuffled around, and she felt the eyes of the room settle on her.
“Bugs—” Milo began.
Eliana shook her head. “He’s accrued sixty-two thousand dollars in affair debt,” she choked, flipping between the pages, the bolded sums stark against the white background.
“That’s triple what I’d expected.” Eliana laughed caustically.
“And look at how fast he ran it up. Just a couple of months is all it took. There’s no fucking money to split.
No equity. No savings. Just a shit-ton of debt. What was he thinking?”
“I’m sorry, I understand this is very unsettling news .
. .” Richard’s voice broke through the quiet following Eliana’s words.
“But how did you get this information?” He flipped the page on the bank statement in his hand, scanning the back before raising suspicious eyes.
“You’re not listed as an authorized user. ”
“It doesn’t matter how we got it,” Clem answered, drawing his attention. “And you were correct, there are bigger issues to consider at the moment.”
“I have a responsibility to make sure—”
“You have a responsibility to defend your client,” Clem cut the lawyer off. “So how about you focus on that?”
Richard sat back, his brows high on his forehead as he crossed his arms, glaring at Clem. For a tense moment, Eliana thought he was going to snap and kick them all out. But then he simply cocked his head and asked, “What is it that you do again?”
“You’re getting off topic,” Clem answered. “Now, Eliana, how do you want to handle this? My offer still stands.”
“What offer?” Richard asked.
“This fucking guy.” Clem rolled her eyes. “Why did we have to meet here again?”
“I already had the appointment scheduled, Clem. And Richard’s great.”
“My way would be a lot easier.”
“Your way is illegal.”
Clem waved a hand flippantly, “It’s only illegal if you get caught and like I was saying . . .”
“That’s not even remotely true,” Richard interrupted.
“Alright,” Clem snapped, sitting back and gesturing for him to proceed. “I guess it’s your turn to talk now.”
Richard huffed a reluctant laugh despite himself. “Look, I’m just saying that being convicted doesn’t make something illegal. The act itself is what makes something illegal.”
“Uhm . . . innocent until proven guilty?”
“That applies to the process of conviction. Again, that doesn’t determine legality.”
“Sure, theoretically.” Clem sniffed. “Doing something in opposition to the law is illegal. But in practice?” she asked, raising one brow.
“Legality only matters in determining the punishment, and punishment only occurs if one is convicted of a crime. Ergo, in reality, it’s not illegal if you don’t get caught. ”
Richard sucked on a tooth, a glint of challenge in his eye when he sat forward and opened his mouth, but the sound of bickering faded away when Milo tilted sideways into Eliana’s space and whispered, “Was she suggesting—”
Eliana nodded quickly, her eyes on Richard to make sure he didn’t overhear. Seeing that his sharp gaze was still locked on Clem, however, soothed Eliana’s worries. “It’s best not to ask too many questions.”
Then she leaned forward, focusing on the two squabblers. “Hey,” she said, her words landing with the effectiveness of an alarm clock in a hurricane.
When the bickering continued unchecked, she cleared her throat and tried again. “Hey! As much as I’m enjoying this debate, I could use some legal expertise here.”
Richard and Clem quieted, their heads swiveling to look at Eliana as if they’d forgotten she existed. Richard shook his head, appearing chastised by the realization that he’d neglected his client.
“Apologies, let’s get back on track. Uhm . . .” he trailed off, glancing down at the stack of papers on his desk.
“There is no money,” Eliana supplied dryly.
“No money. Right.” Richard coughed once, shuffled the papers, and cast one final stink-eye towards Clem, before straightening.
“Okay, so I think the most obvious route here would be to file for divorce immediately and report your suspicions about his workplace fraud to his employer. If you’re right, the dollar amount could be a felony.
That would mean serious prison time. We’d have a strong case for getting you sole custody of your daughters. ”
“Now that,” Clem said, “we can agree on. And it is a perfect segue into my final piece of information.” She slapped a file folder on the desk, arching a brow at Richard.
“Before you even ask, the answer is no. I will not expand on where the files came from. It doesn’t matter anyway, because we won’t be using this evidence in court proceedings.
These are for planning purposes and knowledge sharing only.
” Richard nodded, though it clearly pained him to do so, and Clem raised her palm, allowing him to lift the file and shuffle through the documents.
Clem turned back to Eliana. “You were right about everything. From what we can tell, based on emails and digital footprint, is that Jesse’s boss and the Incentives Director are working together in a scheme to cash in falsified rebates for company products using dummy employee accounts.
Jesse appears to be the one processing the paperwork and turning a blind eye, in exchange for their approving some pretty significant, and almost certainly fraudulent, reimbursements through the company’s travel expense program. ”
Milo whistled under his breath. “How much have they embezzled?”
“Hundred thousand, best we can tell. Maybe more.”
“Who is ‘we’?” Richard casually pried, flipping between pages. Too casual.
“‘We’ is me,” Clem answered.
“Are you telling me you have multiple personalities now?”
Clem tilted her head, a curious smile spreading. “Why? Would that scare you?”
“Okay.” Eliana snapped her fingers, widening her eyes at Clem.
“Fine,” Clem huffed. “I’m simply pointing out that Dick here is right, you have cards you can play. And if you want my advice, Eliana, I say you throw his ass away to rot. At least figuratively, if not literally.”