Chapter 4
He simply didn't think that meant I understood anything important.
When Richard's company faced a funding crisis, Carter had come to me one night and asked for help.
Not as a wife.
As someone who understood the numbers.
I reviewed the books, identified the liabilities that were threatening the company's largest contracts, and developed a restructuring proposal. I also introduced Richard to a private investment group that agreed to provide emergency capital.
The company survived.
Its contracts expanded.
Its valuation climbed.
And Carter became the public face of its recovery.
The investment had been made through a trust established with my premarital assets. In exchange, the trust received a minority equity position, specific voting protections, and contractual rights designed to prevent the controlling shareholders from stripping the company of value.
Those protections were written into the shareholder agreement.
They were also acknowledged in our marital agreement.
Carter had signed both.
He knew the trust existed. He knew my contribution had helped rescue the company.
But over the years, he had convinced himself that the arrangement was merely a technicality, a temporary solution that would never interfere with the life he believed he owned.
He had never asked me to explain the documents.
He had assumed they were beneath his attention.
Rebecca turned to the next page.
“Your trust owns twenty-two percent of Hale Development. Your interest was established before the marriage and remains separate property under the applicable agreement. The company has grown considerably since then, but the equity itself was never transferred to Carter.”
I looked at the figures.
Twenty-two percent.
A position worth substantially more than the money Carter had spent eight years telling me I didn't deserve.
“And Clause 14?” I asked.
“Your husband initiated the divorce proceedings yesterday. Under the agreement, that triggers an independent review of specified corporate transactions, including any transfers that could affect your protected equity rights. Several attempted transactions are now on hold while the review proceeds.”
I frowned.
“Attempted transactions?”
Rebecca slid another document across the table.
“This is why the situation is more serious than a disagreement over the divorce.”
The document was a preliminary transaction summary from Hale Development.
Three weeks earlier, Carter had approved a proposed restructuring that would move several valuable development contracts into a new subsidiary controlled by an entity affiliated with his business partners.
The new entity would assume some of the company's most profitable assets while leaving a disproportionate share of its liabilities behind.