Chapter 3 - Unmasking the Mirage
The office of Eleanor Vance was located on the forty-second floor of a glass tower in downtown Manhattan, offering a sweeping view of the East River. Eleanor, a woman in her late fifties with sharp gray eyes and tailored charcoal suits, reviewed the financial statements Natalie had brought with an expression of cold calculation.
“Your husband made a classic mistake,” Eleanor said, setting down her gold fountain pen. “He assumed you were too trusting to ever audit him. This LLC he formed with Claire Dalton isn’t just an account for weekend getaways. It appears he was funneling marital assets into a shell company designed to purchase commercial properties under their names.”
Natalie felt a shiver run down her spine. “He was planning on leaving me all along, wasn’t he?”
“He was planning on bleeding your shared assets dry before filing for divorce,” Eleanor confirmed bluntly. “By devaluing your joint accounts and transferring equity into this private corporate entity, he would have claimed to be financially strapped during settlement talks. You would have walked away with pennies on the dollar, while he and Miss Dalton walked away with prime Brooklyn real estate.”
Natalie’s jaw tightened. “Can we freeze the accounts?”
“We’re doing better than that,” Eleanor smiled, her eyes gleaming with predatory intellect. “We are filing an emergency ex parte motion this afternoon to freeze all associated assets, including Apex Holdings LLC. Furthermore, since Claire Dalton is a registered broker with the same firm and Ethan is an executive, using corporate kickbacks and commingled funds crosses into gross ethical misconduct and potential securities fraud.”
While Eleanor drafted the legal paperwork, Ethan was not sitting idly by. Desperate to protect his reputation, he ambushed Natalie outside her interior design studio later that afternoon.
Natalie was walking toward her car when Ethan stepped out from behind a parked SUV. He looked disheveled; his tie was loose, dark circles bruised his eyes, and his hair was unkempt.
“Natalie, please, five minutes,” he pleaded, blocking the driver’s side door. “You’re not answering my calls. You had the locks changed on the townhouse!”
“Because it’s no longer your home, Ethan,” Natalie said calmly, keeping her distance. “Any further communication must go through my lawyer.”
“Lawyer?” Ethan scoffed, his face twisting into panic. “You’re making this into a ridiculous spectacle! People have affairs, Natalie. Marriages hit rough patches. I made a terrible error in judgment, but we can fix this. Claire means nothing to me. It was purely physical!”
Suddenly, the passenger window of Ethan’s car rolled down, revealing Claire Dalton herself sitting in the front seat, staring in disbelief at his words. Clearly, Ethan hadn’t realized Claire was listening so closely.
Natalie almost laughed out loud at the poetic irony. She looked directly past Ethan toward Claire. “Hear that, Claire? One year together, hundreds of thousands stolen from my accounts to buy your affection, and you’re already just a ‘terrible error in judgment’ who means nothing.”
Claire’s face transformed into pure fury. She stepped out of the vehicle, slamming the door. “What did you just say, Ethan?”
“Claire, wait, that’s not what I meant—” Ethan stammered, flailing his hands between the two women.
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“You told me you loved me! You told me you were serving her papers by the end of the month!” Claire screamed in the middle of the parking lot.
Natalie pressed the unlock button on her key fob, slid into the driver’s seat, and rolled down the window. “I suggest you two save your energy for the courtroom. You’re going to need it.”
