“What if I fail?”
“Then you fail. But you won’t do it in my house.”
Vanessa filed for divorce three days later.
Not Robert. Vanessa.
She claimed emotional abuse, financial manipulation, and my personal favorite, alienation of affection caused by a controlling, vindictive mother-in-law.
Mr. Brennan sent me the filing with a note.
She’s flailing. This will be fun.
It was.
Her lawyer was from the same cut-rate firm that handled the house transfer, Whitmore and Associates. They demanded mediation, claimed Robert had hidden assets, requested full financial disclosure.
Mr. Brennan buried them in paperwork. Bank statements showing Robert’s three hundred forty-dollar checking-account balance. Credit-card debt of twenty-three thousand, all in both their names. Pay stubs showing he had been unemployed for six weeks.
“Where’s the money?” Vanessa’s lawyer kept asking.
“What money?” Mr. Brennan replied.
“Mr. Hayes is living in a rental property owned by a private family trust. He has no assets.”
