Two months ago, the same day that I had pled guilty to charges of accessory to trafficking and identity fraud, I had also officially filed for divorce from my husband of ten years. That, however, was just the start. Getting the man to sign any sort of agreement was quite another—particularly when I had agreed to testify against him as a result of my plea deal. Greg Cardozo, the attorney from the Brooklyn DA’s office now prosecuting that case, had not yet provided the information to Calvin’s counsel, though eventually he would have to. But all the lawyers I was working with thought Calvin likely suspected it, as did the newspapers. And subsequently, he was planning to use our divorce to prevent it at all costs.
Barney and Delia had come tonight with the bad news that yet another offer had been turned down by Calvin’s representation.
“Because, Nina,” Jane said as gently as she could from where she was currently curled up under Eric’s arm. “What he wants is everything.”
“Not to mention the impossible,” Eric added dryly.
He had arrived home from work just as Delia and Barney were finishing up their review of my case. My cousin still hadn’t even loosened his tie, but he was more than happy to nurse a vodka soda and cuddle with his wife. My own glass of pinot grigio sat untouched.
I turned from my place in front of the fireplace.
“Still,” I said to my attorneys. “He can’t be serious. Two billion dollars in DVS shares? A seat on the board? He knows my net worth. He knows I don’t have anything close to that.”
“He also knows you’ll do anything to retain full legal custody of your daughter,” Delia replied.
“Ms. de Vries,” said Barney, “if you might consider sharing at least some custody—”
“Absolutely not.”
“Fuck, no.”
“My cousin will never do that.”
Jane, Eric, and I all spoke at once. My heart thumped a few times in anger, but just as soon quieted. It was good to know my family felt as vehemently as I did.
I strode forward, collapsed onto a thick white ottoman, and pushed my face into my hands. “I don’t know what to do. We’ve offered the penthouse, the property in Aspen, that ridiculous hut in the Maldives he insisted on buying because all his friends swore by vacations on atolls. Do you remember that?”
Eric looked at me blankly. I had forgotten for a moment that he had actually been absent for most of my marriage.
“My entire stock portfolio and more than seventy percent of my liquid funds,” I rattled on. “You would think taking nearly all my assets would appease the man. It’s worth much more than the hundred million coming in my inheritance and what’s left in my trust.”
“The problem is that he knows there’s a lot more behind it all,” Barney said. “Mr. Gardner was there for the reading of your grandmother’s will, Ms. de Vries. He knows what the family is worth. And his other attorney is still doing everything he can to challenge the will in probate.”
Eric muttered something unintelligible behind me that sounded like “Don’t I fucking know it.” I gathered the probate issue had caused him some headaches at work once he had assumed leadership of DVS.
“But he’s not even a family member!” I burst out. “Tell me again how he managed to squirm his way out of the prenup, Barney? I cannot possibly believe that my grandmother would have ever let this happen!”
Delia and Barney both traded bemused, slightly terrified looks that weren’t unlike so many other traded glances I had seen around Celeste before she died.
“Well, as we’ve been over, Ms. de Vries, Mr. Gardner signed the prenuptial agreement less than two days before your wedding,” Barney said uneasily.
“We were engaged for less than a month, though,” I argued.
“Indeed,” Delia replied. “And he’s using that to argue that he signed under duress. Unfortunately, it also sounds like the judge may be inclined to agree with him.”
I groaned into my hands. “This is ridiculous. No one actually named in the will is arguing Grandmother’s state of mind or the document’s validity, but somehow he can get away with that too in probate? Calvin should have absolutely no standing here.”
“Well, considering your marriage lasted ten years, he may have more than you think,” Delia countered gently. “Mr. Gardner’s argument is that he has a right to maintain a similar lifestyle to which he has grown accustomed, which is larger than what he was offered in the prenuptial agreement. And the judge may sympathize. Now he’s not going to accept some real estate and a few million dollars and walk away, even if it is worth everything you have. Not when your family is worth billions and they have supported you both for years under, as he claims, the logic that until Mr. de Vries returned to the family fold, you were originally going to inherit the de Vries fortune. Not Eric.”
“That’s all that’s in your original trust?” Eric asked. “A few million dollars?”
“Really?” Jane piped up next to him. “Is that what’s important here?”
I frowned back at him. “Thirteen, to be exact. There was more, but I gave some to Calvin when we married to start his first investment company. But I’m only given a percentage of the interest as an allowance. Any more than that, and I have to request special permission. My father named Grandmother the head of the board
