(Highest ranking: #253 in Chicklit - 3 October 2017) Cynthia finds lipstick on her husband's shirt and it isn't her shade. She goes out for a walk trying to process the shocking news of her husband's infidelity, and that's when she finds Stacy, a wo...
"So, he's the one that got you the lawyer?" Stacy asked.
"Yes. I just thought it was him being his controlling self. I didn't know any lawyers at the time and he did, so he got me one to explain the whole prenup to me."
Cynthia and Stacy were sitting on the bench overlooking the city at their old photo-capturing hill. They were on the walk-and-capture that they had planned after hours of effortless texting the previous night.
During the school run earlier that day, Cynthia dropped the kids off just as their school bell was ringing. She was still in her pajamas, and she had told them they would have to buy snacks at their tuck shop for the lunch she had woken up too late to make. This was not her usual habit, but this time it did not bother her at all.
She had kept the cleaning minimal in the morning so she could spare some time for her meet up with Stacy before work. She always overcleaned anyway. Now she held her canon in her hands, just after having taken an angled shot of the city's skyline, and Stacy was filling her in on her marital law research she did the previous night.
"See, if you didn't have the correct legal representation, the whole prenup could be thrown out," Stacy explained. "And if you didn't choose your own lawyer, you could say that he chose a biased lawyer that didn't explain to you what you were getting into."
"Really? What if they just tell me I should have known not to accept someone else's representative?"
"No, I think if we get you a good lawyer for the divorce hearing, he could say that your husband was controlling and manipulative and that you come from a conservative family so you felt like you had to obey his orders. And he ordered you to take his lawyer instead of looking for your own."
"And I can tell them how he chooses everything I wear or eat, so they know how manipulative he is... Can you imagine how it would be if the prenup is out and I get half the assets? I don't have any property myself, but half of his..." Cynthia stopped in a daze for a while then shook her head saying, "He doesn't tell me much about his financials though."
"Wait, another thing that you could catch him on is if he didn't disclose all his assets on the prenup. If he missed anything the whole thing is void. You have a copy of it right?"
"Mh-hmm!" Cynthia nodded
"You know, him being the scumbag that he is, I won't be surprised if he's evading taxes out here. I bet he didn't disclose everything. We should find a way to get to his papers. If there's something fishy there, we're going to make him choke on dust like he deserves." Stacy was clenching her jaw. She was imagining slamming the head of the person she saw in Cynthia's framed pictures into a pile of dust. She was struggling to control her anger for this man that she associated with the other scumbags that had caused her so much pain during her profession.
"The other day, I did find some mysterious papers about a lodge and his name was all over the place. I didn't read it carefully though. I just put it on the shelf where I usually put his stuff. Don't know if it's still there."
"A lodge? Do you remember where his name was or what the papers were referring to?"
"I remember seeing the words "accrued debtors" on what I think was half of a letter. I see that that phrase all the time at work maybe that's why it caught my eye. And when I read it some more, it sounded like it was someone, an accountant I'm guessing, explaining an audit error. At first, I thought it must have been something to do with his normal work, but when I skipped to the bottom, the writer of the later seemed to be thanking Andrew for the opportunity to work at such a successful lodge. And I remember!" Cynthia snapped her fingers "I was reading the words Lancaster Lodges when Mary came asking for something. Lancaster is my surname by the way. I found the whole thing strange but I didn't think much about it until now."
"That right there seems way too fishy to me. I bet you that's where he's seeing the other woman. The bastard!" Stacy clasped the edge of her handbag even tighter. "We need to catch him in the act! Wait, he's never seen me, right?"
"No, I haven't told him about you."
"And the kids? They haven't told him about me?"
"The kids don't talk to him much. They're scared of him actually. I hate seeing him shout at them to be quiet – he hates it when the children are running around making a fuss – so I tell them to be quiet when he comes around."
"Of course. Shouldn't have expected any different. But, Cynthia, I think I have a plan. We're going to nail him."
They stayed at the top of the hill talking for quite a while. Occasionally they hushed their voices and whispered to each other even though there was nobody close enough to hear anything they were saying. Now and again, Stacy would lean closer to Cynthia, say something, and then pull away with a look of anticipated triumph and shock on her face. And Cynthia would at times touch Stacy's shoulder, say something quickly, and then gasp and what she herself had said. Then they would both smile and nod at the strategy they were laying out.
"Okay, so I'll be waiting for you at my apartment tomorrow morning. Text me when you're on your way," Stacy said as they were parting ways.
"See you there," replied Cynthia. She then started on her walk to the office with a sly smile on her face. Stacy was smiling too.
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