Chapter 9: The Other Side of the Table
The man in the corner chair was in his fifties.
Gray suit, no tie.
He stood when I walked in but didn't extend his hand.
"Mr.
Calloway," he said.
"I'm Richard Hess.
I've been retained by Mrs.
Calloway."
"I know who you are," I said.
I looked at Paul.
"Why is he here without her?"
"That's what we're about to discuss." Paul gestured to the table.
We sat.
Hess on one side, Paul and I on the other.
The table between us was clean except for a single manila envelope near Hess's elbow.
Hess looked at me for a moment before he spoke.
"My client asked me to come alone," he said.
"She felt that her presence would make this conversation more difficult than it needs to be."
"What conversation?" I asked.
Hess glanced at Paul.
Paul nodded slightly.
"Mr.
Calloway," Hess said, "I've been practicing family law for twenty-six years.
When a client retains me, I conduct my own review of the situation before I advise them on how to proceed." He paused.
"I reviewed what my client gave me.
And then I reviewed what she didn't give me."
I waited.
"The financial records you filed yesterday — the Nevada account, the transfer history, the email chain — I was not aware of any of that before yesterday afternoon." He set his hand on the manila envelope.
"When I confronted my client with what you had filed, she told me it was fabricated."
"It isn't," Paul said.
"I know that." Hess's voice was flat.
"I've been doing this for twenty-six years.
I know fabricated evidence and I know real evidence.
What you filed yesterday is real." He paused.
"I also know that the email chain involves my client's brother-in-law, who is a licensed attorney in this state, and that the conduct described in those emails constitutes serious professional misconduct."
"We've already filed the bar complaint," Paul said.
"I know.
I saw it." Hess opened the manila envelope.
"I'm going to show you something.
This is not a negotiation tactic.
This is not a setup.
I'm showing you this because I believe it changes the picture for both sides, and because I think you need to see it before this goes any further."
He slid two pages across the table.
I looked at the first page.
It was a bank statement.
Not the Nevada account.
A different account entirely — older, the header showing a bank in Connecticut.
The account holder's name was Gerald Morrow.
Renee's brother-in-law.
I looked at the transaction history.
Transfers in.
Regular.
Going back four years.
The source of the transfers was a business account.
The business name meant nothing to me.
"Keep reading," Hess said.
I turned to the second page.
It was a corporate registration document.
The business account's registered owner.
The name was David Calloway.
I set the pages down.
"My brother has been paying her brother-in-law for four years," I said.
"Yes."
"For what?"
"Based on the documentation I've been able to pull in the last eighteen hours — legal consulting fees.
Paid to Gerald Morrow's private practice, not his firm." Hess paused.
"The consulting appears to relate to a property dispute involving a parcel of land in Vermont.
Land that, according to the deed records, is registered in your mother's name."
The room was very quiet.
"My mother's land," I said.
"A twelve-acre parcel in Woodstock, Vermont.
Purchased by your parents in 1987.
Your father passed away in 2009.
The land passed to your mother." Hess folded his hands.
"Gerald Morrow has been advising your brother on how to challenge that title.
Quietly.
For four years."
I looked at Paul.
Paul's expression had not changed, but his pen had stopped moving.
"David wants my mother's land," I said.
"That is what the evidence suggests."
"And Renee knew."
"My client and her brother-in-law have been in close contact throughout.
Yes.
She knew." Hess paused.
"Mr.
Calloway, I am going to be direct with you.
My client made serious errors in judgment.
The financial conduct, the fabricated medical records, the coordination with her brother-in-law — these are not things I can defend.
I will not defend them." He paused again.
"But I believe my client was also being used.
By her brother-in-law.
By your brother.
She was given a role in a larger plan that she may not have fully understood."
"She starved my son," I said.
Hess was quiet for a moment.
"Yes," he said.
"She did.
And that is the part that I cannot explain away and will not try to." He looked at me steadily.
"I'm here because I think there is a way to resolve the divorce and custody matters cleanly and quickly, in a way that protects your children, without a prolonged court battle that exposes your mother's situation and gives your brother time to move on the Vermont property."
I looked at Paul.
Paul looked at me.
"What does your client want?" Paul asked.
"A clean exit.
No fraud charges, in exchange for full financial disclosure, return of the transferred funds, and a custody arrangement that gives primary physical custody to Mr.
Calloway with structured visitation." Hess paused.
"She also wants to provide a sworn statement about Gerald Morrow's conduct.
Everything she knows."
I sat back in my chair.
Outside the window, a bus went past.
The ordinary sound of a city that didn't know any of this was happening.
"She'll testify against her own brother-in-law?" I asked.
"She will.
In exchange for the terms I described." Hess looked at me.
"Mr.
Calloway, I'm not asking you to forgive her.
I'm asking you to consider what serves your children best."
I thought about Marcus.
Asleep on his back.
One arm over his face.
"I need to talk to my attorney," I said.
Hess nodded.
He stood, straightened his jacket, and walked out of the conference room, closing the door behind him.
Paul and I sat in silence for a moment.
"The Vermont land," Paul said quietly.
"My mother doesn't know," I said.
"She has no idea."
"No." He paused.
"We need to call her."
"After this meeting." I looked at the pages still on the table.
"What do you think?"
Paul was quiet for a long moment.
"I think Hess is telling the truth about his client," he said.
"I think she was partly a tool and partly a willing participant, and she's smart enough now to know which side of that line she needs to be on." He paused.
"The offer is reasonable.
The fraud charges would be difficult to prosecute anyway — she'd claim coercion, point to her brother-in-law, and we'd spend two years in court while your children grow up in the middle of it."
"And David?"
Paul looked at me.
May you like
"David is a separate matter entirely," he said.
"And a much more serious one."
