Chapter 7: Monday Morning
The attorney's name was Grace Holloway.
She had worked for Robert Chen's firm for eleven years, and she had the particular quality of very good lawyers, which is that she never looked like she was in a hurry even when everything was moving very fast.
She arrived at the house at eight-fifteen Monday morning with a paralegal, a banker's box of documents, and a calm that Mei found genuinely steadying.
They sat in the dining room — the same room, the same table, though it looked different in the morning light without the guests and the performance of it.
"Daniel's attorney contacted us at seven this morning," Grace said, opening her notebook.
"He's proposing a private settlement.
No court filing, no public record."
"What are the terms?" Mei asked.
"He retains the company.
You retain the house and a cash payment of eight hundred thousand dollars."
Mei looked at her.
"The company is currently valued at how much?"
"Conservatively, fourteen million.
Potentially higher depending on the next funding round."
"And he wants to settle for eight hundred thousand."
"He does."
Mei was quiet for a moment.
"What does my equity stake entitle me to?"
"Twenty-two percent of fourteen million is just over three million.
Plus the original loan repayment of one point four million, which was never made.
Plus interest." Grace paused.
"Plus the attempted fraudulent property transfer, which is a separate legal matter and carries its own exposure for him."
"What kind of exposure?"
"Civil, certainly.
Potentially crjminal, depending on how the DA's office views the intent behind the shell company." Grace said it without drama, the way you state a weather forecast.
"The non-disclosure agreement he signed with your father's firm also contains a penalty clause for breach.
He breached it when he attempted the transfer."
Mei looked at the table.
"He thinks I'll take the eight hundred thousand," she said.
"He thinks you want this to be over quickly," Grace said.
"He thinks the sl@p and the dinner and the humiliation of it means you're emotional and you want out." She paused.
"He has misread you consistently for three years.
I don't see why he would stop now."
Mei almost smiled.
"Decline the settlement," she said.
"File everything."
Grace nodded and made a note.
"There's one more thing," the paralegal said.
She slid a printed email across the table.
"This came through our secure portal this morning.
From Lena Marsh's attorney."
Mei read it.
The email contained a supplemental disclosure.
Something Lena Marsh had not included in her original cooperation — not because she had withheld it deliberately, but because she had only recently found it in an archived folder she hadn't accessed in over a year.
It was a draft document.
A second property transfer.
Not for this house.
For the apartment Mei's father had purchased in her name before she was married — the one she had lived in before moving here, the one she still paid the maintenance fees on, the one she had never mentioned to Daniel because it had never seemed relevant.
He had known about it.
He had instructed Lena Marsh to begin researching the transfer process fourteen months ago, before Lena had gone to Robert's team, before any of this had been set in motion.
He had been planning to take that too.
Mei set the email down.
"He knew about the apartment," she said.
"Yes," Grace said.
"He never told me he knew."
"No."
Mei was quiet for a long moment.
Outside, the garden was bright.
The roses along the east wall caught the morning light.
She had planted them the first spring.
She had done it because she loved it.
"Add the apartment to the filing," she said.
"Full accounting.
Everything."
Grace wrote it down.
"One more question," Mei said.
"The crjminal exposure.
The DA's office.
Is that something my father's firm pursues, or do I have standing to refer it independently?"
Grace looked at her.
"You have standing," she said.
"Then I'd like to refer it," Mei said.
"Independently.
In my own name."
Grace wrote that down too.
Her phone buzzed on the table.
She glanced at it, and something shifted slightly in her expression.
"What is it?" Mei asked.
"Daniel's attorney just called our office," Grace said.
"He's withdrawing the settlement offer."
Mei looked at her.
"He's escalating," Grace said.
"He's filed a counter-petition claiming the original loan was a gift, not a loan.
He's arguing there is no written loan agreement and therefore no repayment obligation."
Mei reached into the folder in front of her and slid a document across the table.
It was the original loan agreement.
Signed by Daniel.
Witnessed by two independent parties.
May you like
Dated four and a half years ago.
"He forgot," Mei said quietly, "that I kept everything."
