Chapter 27
Rachel surprised her with a baby shower the Sunday evening after Labor Day weekend. Claire was surprised, because she’d just seen everyone at book club earlier that week, so she didn’t expect to see them again so soon.
It was the first Sunday that Claire had decided not to open, and she’d mentioned it to Rachel a few weeks prior. So when Rachel invited her to go to a late brunch that day, she didn’t think anything of it except that it would be a nice way to spend her first Sunday off.
Marsha was heading out a little before Rachel picked her up.
She was meeting Warren for lunch and was going to drop Lily off at Teddy’s along the way.
So Claire was completely surprised when she walked into the Nantucket Hotel with Rachel and found Marsha, Lily, Carol, Grammy, and all her friends from book club there.
“I had no idea!”
Rachel grinned. “I know! It worked out perfectly.”
They had a private room in the back, and it was a wonderful afternoon.
Everyone except for Claire and Lily enjoyed mimosas.
They had a nonalcoholic version with orange juice and sparkling cider.
There was a buffet with mini lobster rolls and short rib burgers, eggs Benedict, and Caesar salad.
Claire skipped the eggs Benedict and tried a bit of everything else.
Once everyone had eaten, a huge cake was brought in, and it was delicious—a moist lemon cake with raspberry filling and fluffy lemon frosting.
Claire had two pieces and enjoyed every bite.
She was hungry all the time now and felt huge.
The baby was so active now too, especially when Claire played certain music—she’d noticed that Norah Jones was a favorite.
It always made her smile when the baby reacted to familiar songs.
Claire’s due date was a little over a month away, and she was ready.
She opened gifts after that while Lily took detailed notes on who everything was from so she could send thank-you notes later.
Claire was grateful for all the gifts, as she was really starting over from scratch without anything left from when Lily was a baby.
Marsha had given her a crib, and they had been getting one of the extra bedrooms ready as a nursery.
Rachel gave her a baby carrier, and Stephanie and the other book club women gifted her an assortment of cute clothes, onesies, books, and stuffed animals.
Lily had picked out a few books and a soft fleece baby blanket.
Grammy was super excited about her gift, and Claire was intrigued by it.
Nothing like it had existed when she had Lily.
“It’s like a Keurig for baby formula!” Grammy explained.
“You just pop the mix in, and it automatically makes the formula to the perfect temperature for the baby. And in the perfect amount. One of my friends at the assisted living told me about it. She said her granddaughter loves hers.”
“Thank you, Grammy. That sounds too good to be true!”
By the time the shower wrapped up, Claire was full, happy, and ready for a nap. Rachel and Marsha helped her get all the gifts out to their cars, and Rachel followed them home and helped to get everything moved into the nursery.
“This makes it all seem so real,” Claire said once the last gift was in the nursery.
Rachel laughed. “It will be very real before you know it.”
“I know. Thank you all so much. This was such a lovely shower, and I really was surprised.”
“I know you were. Your mom and I had fun planning it. We’re all excited for the baby to come.”
“Do you want to stay and have a coffee?” Claire offered as she fought back a yawn.
“No, I have to run. But I’ll talk to you in a day or two.”
Sloane called the next morning with a new update.
After Lily’s visit to see Ellis, Claire had called her the next day and filled her in on what Lily had shared and also what she’d seen on the property records.
Sloane hadn’t said much other than she appreciated the information and would pass it along to the forensic investigator.
She said she’d be in touch once she had something concrete to report.
“Claire, can you stop by the office today? I have time at nine thirty if that works?”
“Sure, I can do that. Do you have an update?”
“Yes, I do finally. But it’s involved, and I think it’s best for us to meet in person to go over everything. It’s good news, Claire.”
Claire ended the call, unsure of what that meant but quite curious to find out.
When she arrived at the office, the receptionist smiled and told her to head on into Sloane’s office. Claire stepped into the office and saw that Sloane was on the phone. She smiled when she saw Claire and motioned for her to take a seat. She did, and a moment later, Sloane hung up the phone.
“So do I have an update for you,” she began. She picked up a stack of papers. “Where to begin? Okay, it’s actually good news and bad news. Bad news for Ellis and very good news for you.”
Claire leaned forward. “You found some assets?”
Sloane chuckled. “You could say that, yes. Ellis lied to you about quite a bit. I thought about what you said about your friend being surprised that he left and that some of his clients went with him. The investigator contacted the firm that Ellis worked for to confirm his employment status and that he was terminated. He was not. He left the company of his own accord, and as he didn’t have a noncompete agreement, he took most of his clients with him—including the big ones. ”
Claire was confused. “But I thought he lost all their money—the big clients?”
Sloane shook her head. “That was a lie too. And he didn’t go to work for Rebecca’s father’s firm. Her father is an investor in Ellis’s company, Frontier Capital Group. Ellis started his own company.”
“Frontier Capital Group, that name sounds familiar. I think it was on the trust that owns his apartment.”
Sloane nodded. “Yes. His company bought that apartment and paid cash. There is no mortgage.”
“He paid cash? Do you mean Rebecca’s father owns it then if he’s an investor?”
“No. He’s just an investor in the company. Ellis is managing some of his money. The cash payment came from the sale of the apartment where you two lived.”
Claire was even more confused. “But I thought he had refinanced that and lost the money, so it all went to the mortgage company. He said there was no equity left.”
“Another lie. He didn’t lose his 401k or his investment accounts either. And there is three million sitting in an account in the Cayman Islands. He wanted a divorce to be with Rebecca, but he didn’t want to hand over half his assets to you, and he didn’t think you’d ever follow his paper trail.”
Claire was stunned. “I wouldn’t have. I trusted him and gave him power of attorney to handle the sale of the apartment because I thought there was no equity. I feel so stupid. So what happens now?”
“There are two options. You can press charges for fraud, and you’d likely win, as you have an excellent case, but you’d have stiff legal fees, and that would end his future income, which would impact you and Lily.
So option two is I have a conversation with his attorney and mention that option one is a possibility.
But that can be avoided if we work out a fair settlement—and that means exactly half of everything, all the bank accounts, and half of the money he put into the new apartment.
“He can use his share of another account to replace it. He will pay you a lump sum of these assets before the divorce papers are signed. Your attorney fees and the fees for the forensic audit will come out of his portion of the assets. And he will continue to pay a fair and generous amount for child support. You will forgo alimony in return for half of everything and the legal expenses. How does that sound? That second option is what I would recommend by the way.” Sloane leaned back, and her satisfied smile reminded Claire of the Cheshire cat.
It was a lot to take in, and her head was spinning. “I can’t believe he was going to keep all that from me.” She was hurt and deeply disappointed. She’d thought Ellis was a better man.
“It’s not uncommon with men who had a stay-at-home wife. They sometimes feel that it isn’t fair to give up the money they made, but they don’t take into consideration your contributions, which allowed them to do that. And how you put your career on hold.”
Claire nodded. “I dread telling Lily. She’s going to be furious, and rightly so.”
“Yes, he made his bed so to speak. But this is very good news for you, and it will be for Lily too. This money gives you security, Claire. There will be enough for a nice nest egg and to buy a small property here. Anywhere else, the money would go much further of course. But that is the trade-off to be here.”
“Right. It’s definitely good news. Better but different than I expected. It will take me a bit to digest this.”
“Of course. But it’s a huge win, Claire. I’m so glad you decided to do the forensic audit.”
“I’m so grateful that you pushed me to do it. I wouldn’t have otherwise. I trusted him. I guess I was foolish to.”
“People do foolish things when it comes to money. You were the smart one, and now you can start over with a bit less stress.”
“Thank you, Sloane.”
“I’ll be in touch once I finalize everything with his attorney. I don’t imagine there will be an issue. If all goes well, we can probably close in another month or so. Possibly sooner if they want to get it over with.”
Claire’s head was spinning as she walked out of the office and headed to the shop.
When it was all divided up, she would have several million dollars and ongoing child support from Ellis.
That meant she and Lily could find a place of their own, and Warren could move in with Marsha, like they’d planned. If it all happened as Sloane predicted.