Allison, sensing her meal ticket was under threat, leaned forward, weaponizing her softest, most cloying voice. “Cat, there is no need for this hostility. Jason just wanted a clean, amicable break for everyone’s mental health.”
I snapped my gaze to her. “You sleep in my bed. You fund your lifestyle with liquidity siphoned from my joint accounts. Do not ever utter the word amicable in my presence again.”
Allison’s neck flushed violently, but she instantly retreated into her victim persona. “I understand you’re heartbroken. You can hurl insults at me all you want. But you can’t litigate feelings, Catherine.”
“If this were merely about feelings, Allison, you wouldn’t be sitting at a negotiation table,” I cut her off.
Daniel opened the dossier, extracting a heavy, watermarked document and sliding it to the center of the glass. “Let us address the real estate. According to the recorded deed for the Upper West Side property, the sole legal owner at the time of purchase was Miss Catherine. The down payment was traced directly from a familial gift routed exclusively through her individual accounts. The mortgage amortization schedule proves that one hundred percent of the servicing funds originated from her paycheck.”
“Wait a minute,” Jason barked, his panic spiking. “Once you sign a marriage license, marital funds are commingled. That’s a shared asset!”
Daniel didn’t blink. “Commingled funds can indeed complicate discovery. However, the law explicitly protects separate property when the origin of the capital is indisputably proven. In the case of this real property, the chain of custody is flawless. You have no equity claim.”
Jason whipped his head toward me, his eyes blazing with a mixture of terror and fury. “You hid the deed from me!”
A bitter, incredulous laugh scraped my throat. “Hid it? You slept under that roof for three years. You never once bothered to ask whose name was on the title, nor did you ever offer to contribute to the escrow. And now you accuse me of hiding it? Or are you just outraged that your exit payout just plummeted by a million dollars?”
Jason’s face morphed into a sickly, ashen gray. He clenched his jaw, battling the urge to scream in a crowded public venue.
Daniel seamlessly produced the next document. “Moving to the vehicle currently operated by Mr. Jason. The financing agreement bears his signature. However, the twenty-thousand-dollar initial deposit was unlawfully extracted from a joint marital account without Miss Catherine’s written consent to convert shared liquidity into a private asset. That twenty thousand dollars constitutes a debt owed to the marital estate.”
Allison shifted frantically. “Mr. Henshaw, there is a misunderstanding. Jason utilizes that SUV for his corporate commute. It’s practically a business expense.”
Daniel didn’t even look at her. “Ma’am, I am negotiating with Mr. Jason and Miss Catherine. You hold no legal standing in this dissolution. I must insist you refrain from offering unsolicited legal commentary.”
The polite brutality of the shutdown left Allison breathless. Her manicured hands gripped the edge of her skirt so hard her knuckles popped.
