Chapter 11 - The money I did not know was gone
Rebecca asked for complete marital financial disclosure.
Dorian resisted.
Then divorce proceedings began.
He had to produce records.
Our joint savings account had held:
$286,000
six months earlier.
Current balance:
$71,000.
Where did the money go?
Some legitimate.
Taxes.
Home repairs.
Hospital deposit? no.
Then:
$145,000 transferred to a brokerage account titled only in Dorian’s name.
Another:
$48,000 moved to Clarissa’s family investment company as repayment of a “personal advance.”
What advance?
Dorian claimed Clarissa had loaned him money before our marriage.
Documentation existed.
Original principal:
$35,000.
Repayment due:
Years earlier.
Interest calculation brought it to roughly:
$48,000.
Could he repay a legitimate premarital debt using marital funds without consequence?
Potentially relevant to equitable distribution.
Not automatically criminal.
Then the $145,000.
Still traceable.
Not hidden offshore.
Not stolen forever.
But he moved it after he began discussing separation with Clarissa.
Rebecca said:
“That looks like marital dissipation we can litigate.”
Dorian’s attorney said:
“It was asset preservation.”
Same money.
Different label.
The court would decide.
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Clarissa’s threat that I would leave penniless became less frightening the more records we obtained.
Marriage creates legal interests that mothers-in-law do not erase with insults.
