Chapter 10: What Eleanor Did Next
She moved faster than I expected.
Three days after the hearing, Karen called me at seven in the morning.
"Eleanor's attorneys have filed a motion to have Patricia's testimony excluded," she said.
"They're arguing the notebook entries constitute hearsay and that Patricia was acting as an unauthorized agent of the respondent when she preserved the documents."
"Can they make that stick?"
"No.
But it will take time to argue, and time is what they're buying." A pause.
"There's something else.
David has filed a separate motion — his own attorneys, not Eleanor's — requesting a psychological evaluation of you before the full hearing."
I sat down on the edge of the bed.
"He's separating from Eleanor's strategy," Karen said.
"That's new.
Either he's trying to distance himself from the fraud allegations, or someone has advised him that Eleanor is becoming a liability."
"Or both," I said.
"Or both," she agreed.
"I want you to come in this morning.
We need to talk about how to respond."
I was at her office by nine.
She had coffee waiting and a legal pad already covered in notes.
"The psychological evaluation motion is actually useful to us," she said.
"If we agree to it — and I think we should — it gives us the opportunity to request one for David as well.
And for Eleanor.
A court-ordered evaluation of the woman who sl@pped a six-year-old at a family dinner and then filed for emergency guardianship of that child is not going to help Eleanor's case."
"David is trying to make me look unstable," I said.
"David is trying to survive," Karen said.
"He's watching Eleanor's strategy collapse and he's recalculating.
The question is whether he'll try to cut a deal before the full hearing."
"Would you take a deal?"
She looked at me.
"That depends entirely on what he offers and what you want.
What do you want, Olivia?"
I thought about it.
"I want the divorce," I said.
"I want full custody of Mia.
I want the property transfer reversed and whatever assets were moved out of my name returned.
And I want the people who forged my signature to face consequences that are on the public record."
"That last part is the hardest," she said.
"A deal usually involves someone not facing public consequences in exchange for cooperation."
"Then we don't deal," I said.
She nodded slowly.
"All right."
David called that afternoon.
Not from his usual number — from a number I didn't recognize.
I answered anyway.
"I need to talk to you without attorneys," he said.
"That's not something I'm willing to do."
"Olivia.
Please." His voice was different.
The control was still there, but underneath it was something I hadn't heard from him in years.
Something that might have been fear.
"My mother has gone further than I agreed to.
The property transfer — that was Dana's idea, and I didn't stop it, and I know that.
But the second guardianship clause — the one about terminating your parental rights — I didn't know about that until Gerald left.
I swear to you I didn't know."
"You forged my signature on a document designed to take Mia away from me," I said.
"Whether you knew about the second clause or not, you built the structure that made it possible."
"I know," he said.
"I know that." A long pause.
"She's not going to stop.
You need to understand that.
Even if the court rules against her, she will find another way.
She always does.
The only way to stop her is to give her something she wants more than she wants to fight you."
"What does she want?"
"The trust," he said.
"The family trust.
She's terrified that if this goes to full trial, the trust assets will be frozen during the investigation.
If you agree to exclude the trust from the divorce settlement — just the trust, nothing else — she'll drop the guardianship petition and stop contesting the divorce."
I let the silence sit for a moment.
"Put it in writing," I said.
"Have your attorney contact Karen by end of business tomorrow.
If Eleanor signs it herself, Karen will review it."
"And if the terms are acceptable —"
"I'll consider it," I said.
"I'm not promising anything."
I hung up and called Karen immediately.
"He's offering a deal," I said.
"I heard," she said.
"I had the call recorded with your consent, remember?"
"What do you think?"
"I think Eleanor is more afraid of the trust investigation than she is of losing the guardianship petition," Karen said.
"Which means the trust investigation is exactly where we should be looking." A pause.
"I'm going to make some calls.
Don't agree to anything yet."
She called back two hours later.
"The family trust," she said, "has not filed accurate tax disclosures for at least six years.
I have a contact at the state attorney's office who has been looking at it for other reasons." Another pause.
"Olivia, Eleanor doesn't just want to keep the trust out of the divorce settlement.
She wants to keep it out of a criminal investigation."
The room felt very still.
"What does that mean for us?" I asked.
"It means," Karen said carefully, "that we are no longer just the people she was trying to defraud.
May you like
We are now the people who can hand the state attorney's office everything they need." She paused one more time.
"And that changes everything about how much power we have in this room."
