“It’ll be easier to sell in its current condition than before,” Bonnie said. “I’d offer it to you for the rest of the year but I suspect you’re settled where you are.”
“I’m pretty comfortable,” she said with a slight flush. “Plus, there are important dogs there.”
“You? Dogs?” Bonnie said.
“She’s come a long way,” Landry said.
“Will you break away from the writing long enough to join us for dinner? I haven’t been to Jack’s since last summer.”
“Sure,” she said. “And he would love to see you.”
Landry felt his phone buzz, pulled it out of his pocket and read a text. It was from Brie, asking him to come by her office at his earliest convenience.
“Kaylee, can you go with the Templetons to Jack’s and I’ll meet you there? I just got a text from a friend asking me to drop by. I shouldn’t be long.”
“Sure,” she said. “Take your time.”
Landry left while Kaylee and the Templetons continued to look at and praise the renovations on the house, much to Paul’s satisfaction. Landry wasted no time texting Brie that he was on his way.
It had to have something to do with the divorce. It could all be over in no time. Surely Laura had signed off on it. They had agreed long ago, if one of them wanted to divorce, the other would not make it difficult. And they had no common property.
When he repeated that to Brie she said, “Oh, but you do. Any property you acquired during the marriage or jointly own is considered part of the divorce settlement.”
“As I said, we don’t have any jointly owned property.”
“Don’t you have a house? Land? Maybe a retirement account? Equipment that you use in your business?”
“It’s not jointly owned. I inherited the house and land from my father a few years ago and Laura has never been a part of my business.”
“It would very likely be considered part of the marriage assets, since you’re still married. Just as her assets would be considered part of the marriage assets.”
“Unless she’s keeping something from me, she doesn’t have anything. In fact, I told you that over the years she’s had to borrow money from me, not that I was fool enough to consider it a loan. I think Laura spends whatever she has when she gets paid and isn’t much of a saver or investor. She lives well when she’s working and not as well when she’s not.”
“Explain your situation to me again,” Brie said. “You haven’t lived together in ten years, you discussed divorce due to your separation eight years ago and agreed on the terms—”
“There were no terms,” he said a little hotly. “I didn’t have anything but my art supplies, she didn’t have anything. We agreed we weren’t going to live together. We were friendly and she visited sometimes.”
“Define sometimes,” Brie asked.
“I saw her three or four times a year. I haven’t sent her monthly money or slept with her in eight years. I didn’t support her. I gave her loans because she was short. I knew they weren’t loans and I did it anyway.”
“I received a very polite email from her lawyer that said she’d be happy with half of your house and land and support payments.”
“She never lived in that house! I’ll call her and get to the bottom of this!”
“As your attorney, I advise you not to make contact with her. She has an attorney, you have an attorney. I’ll recommend mediation supervised by family court and you can lay it all out.”
“And just because I didn’t divorce her a long time ago, I’m going to lose my home and half my possessions?”
“I do think under the circumstances we’ll get out better than that, but there’s no question that now that lawyers are involved, it’ll be more expensive. Listen, the law is the law and believe it or not it’s written that way to protect the innocent. No-fault divorce means it doesn’t matter who does what to who and community property is simply half or whatever can be negotiated. Right now, feeling like you’re being robbed, you don’t have much empathy, but this is meant to protect men or women from falling at the mercy of powerful spouses who want to turn their backs on their responsibilities. That is not your situation. So—we’ll try mediation and fight it. Your marriage was over a long time ago.”
“I’m still going to call her and ask her why she’s doing this.”
“If I were you I’d probably ignore my lawyer’s advice and do that, too. Try very hard not to give her more ammo. Okay?”
Landry was so angry that he didn’t wait long. He called Laura on his way to Jack’s. Of course she didn’t answer. Now that he thought about it, she rarely did. She almost always returned the call. On the other hand, if he saw that it was her and he wasn’t in the middle of something important, he would answer. But clearly Laura’s life was more important than his. To the voice mail he said, “I’ve just heard from my lawyer. My lawyer heard from your lawyer. So you’re going to make this difficult and you’re asking for half my father’s property? Property that you visited maybe six times in as many years? Property that you never shared with me, but now you want it? What the hell is going on, Laura? We agreed years ago that we’d chosen to live separately and if the time for divorce came, there would be no altercation! This is altercation, my wife. I’ve given you patience, kindness, money, and now that I just want to end it, you’re going to drag every dime you can get out of my kicking, screaming body? If you’d come to me and told me you need a little help... Haven’t I always
