"Which is what I should have done a long time ago."
"I want to resolve this without going to court."
"Then you should have thought about that before someone forged my name on a legal document."
His expression shifted.
"That was Lauren's idea.
I want you to know that.
I didn't ask her to do it."
"But you knew."
A pause.
"I found out after."
"And you brought it to the airport anyway."
He had no answer for that.
"Daniel," I said.
"Your attorney will hear from David on Monday.
I have nothing else to say to you directly."
"Vanessa is pregnant."
I heard it.
I let it land.
I watched his face watching mine.
"Congratulations," I said.
And I closed the door.
---
I stood in the hallway for a moment with my hand still on the door handle.
Then I walked to the kitchen and put the kettle on.
Carol called twenty minutes later.
"How did it go?" she said.
"He told me Vanessa is pregnant."
Silence.
"He told me right there on the doorstep," I said.
"I think he wanted to see if it would break me."
"Did it?"
I looked at the kettle.
"No."
"Good," Carol said.
"Because David called me this afternoon.
He found something in the financial records."
I set down my mug.
"What kind of something?"
"A joint investment account," she said.
"One you apparently signed the paperwork for eighteen months ago."
"I never signed paperwork for a joint investment account."
"No," Carol said.
"You didn't."
The kettle began to whistle.
"How much?" I said.
"Just over two hundred thousand dollars," Carol said.
"Moved in increments over fourteen months.
David says the signature on the account paperwork matches the one on the postnuptial agreement."
I turned the kettle off.
"It's the same forgery," I said.
"It's the same forgery," Carol confirmed.
"Rachel, this isn't just a divorce anymore."
---
David filed the petition the following Monday.
He also sent a separate letter to Daniel's attorney, Marcus Webb, outlining the forged signatures, the investment account, and the video evidence.
The letter was three pages long.
The last paragraph informed Marcus that if Daniel did not agree to a full financial disclosure within ten business days, David would be filing a fraud complaint with the state attorney's office.
Marcus called David within two hours.
David called me that afternoon.
"They want to negotiate," he said.
"Of course they do."
"Marcus is asking for a two-week window to review the financial records and come back with a revised offer."
"What do you recommend?"
"I recommend we give them one week," David said.
"And I recommend you prepare yourself for a number that looks very different from what Daniel offered you at the airport."
"And Lauren?" I said.
"What happens to Lauren?"
A pause.
"That depends on how cooperative Daniel decides to be.
If he confirms that Lauren forged the signatures, she faces her own legal exposure.
If he protects her, we pursue it independently.
Either way, the forgery is documented.
It doesn't disappear."
I thought about Lauren pressing that envelope into Daniel's chest.
The look on her face.
She had known this day might come.
She had come prepared.
She had not prepared well enough.
"One week," I said.
"Tell Marcus one week."
---
The revised offer came in six days.
I sat across from David in his office and read through it carefully.
The house, free and clear.
The full contents of our joint savings account.