Page 39 of Fractured (Not Quite a Billionaire)
“Sorry your holiday’s been so drama-filled, anyway,” Hemi said. “We’ll have you bring a friend next time, maybe, so the two of you can roll your eyes at our inferior spiritual path. Wouldn’t be a bad thing at all to give you a bit of company if we do that Great Barrier Reef bit next time, eh. Which I’m guessing Hope will enjoy once she learns to swim, because there’s no going fast involved. It’s a very slow thing, snorkeling. She could even wear a life vest. And if the friend’s a Buddhist, that’ll be a bonus for you. You two could practice looking at the fish and corals and moving on. Although the Buddhist will need to be the female type, because I’m not taking Noah on my holiday.”
Karen looked at him doubtfully. “You’d really do that? I mean, take meanda friend with you, and pay for it? Even though I just got kind of…”
“Yeh. I would. Even though you just got passionate. I’m Maori. We understand passion, and we definitely understand family. That’sourspiritual path.”
“You’re not actually my…” She seemed to be groping for a word. “You don’t have to. You reallydon’thave to be attached.”
“Ah,” he said. “Except it seems I do. Not sure I’d be much chop as a Buddhist. But then, like I said, I was born into a different sort of path.”
“I’d think itwasthe same,” Karen said. “I thought being Maori was all sort of, the circle of life and all that.”
“Maybe with more attachment,” Hemi said. “Good topic for another day.” He asked me, “How about taking a couple deep breaths and finishing your breakfast, and reminding yourself that I’m going to be here for whatever comes up, because I hold hard?”
I had to smile at him, even though Iwasstill a little upset. We finished eating, and Karen stayed in the café while Hemi and I went outside. We sat on a bench under an awning in a cold wind with our coats buttoned up, and Hemi pulled the phone out of his pocket, but he didn’t place the call right away. Instead, he said, “So. Noah the Unattached Buddhist. Got a feeling about which way he wants his temporary attachment to run.”
“Yep,” I said with a sigh. “Boy, do I feel unprepared for this.”
“Could be you need a partner, then.”
“Could be. And you’re up to the job, clearly. But Karen’s right. You don’t really have any…”
“Ah,” Hemi said. “I’m thinking we may need to work on that. And we’re going to. One sec.” And he put the phone on speaker and called his attorney.
Walter, I noticed, didn’t waste any more time than Hemi did. Instead, he launched straight into it.
“The good news is,” he said, “your dissolution is on the docket. Not even three months away. September twenty-first. The New Zealand attorney will handle it, neither you nor your wife has to appear, and it’ll be done that day. No complications that I can find out about. I have to say, other than the two-year separation requirement, they make it easy over there.”
“And the bad news?” Hemi asked.
“It seems that the parties have a year after the divorce to work out the financial details.”
“And?” Hemi asked.
“Her attorney says she’s going for half.”
I saw Hemi go rigid. He’d been able to maintain an ease during our talk with Karen that I hadn’t, but now, it was gone. He took a breath and visibly centered himself before he asked, “On what grounds?”
“That you were together more than three years, which are also theonlygrounds she could use. And which, as I explained, means she’d be entitled to half your assets acquired during the marriage, absent unusual circumstances.”
“In the first place,” Hemi said, “if those weren’t unusual circumstances, I don’t know what would be. And in the second, I told you, it wasn’t three years. I have an expired passport with an exit stamp that shows the date I left the country. Can’t do much better than that.”
“Hmm,” Walter said. “That’s good news, yes. But she’s primarily disputing the date when you started living together. Presumably she knew when you left.”
“We had a lease,” Hemi said. “We posted bond on the flat. I’m covered at both ends.”
“Well, dig that up,” Walter said, “if you can. We’re going to need it. But what about before that? Was she living with you in your…whatever your housing was? Or were you living with her?”
“Sleeping together some nights, yeh,” Hemi said. “When my roommate was out. Not living together.”
“We’ll need to prove that. Any ideas?”
Hemi frowned silently for a minute, then said, “Affidavits from my mates at the time. Roommate, flatmates, especially. I’m in touch with one mate, and she’ll know how to reach the others.”
I could almost see Walter making a note. “Good. We’ll get on that as soon as you send me the information. But as I said—she has a year, and she’s got an aggressive attorney, too. Whoever said New Zealanders weren’t litigious wasn’t talking about this guy. Pit bull all the way. You may decide you’re better off settling and making it go away. Start by offering her, say, five hundred thousand, and decide what your ceiling is. AndI’llbe the one on the other end of that, not Mr. ‘New Zealanders are Different.’ Ex-wives aren’t different. Just ask my two. And on that note—do me a favor. Take it from somebody who’s staring down the barrel of Number Three right now. Donotmention this to your fiancée. I don’t care how much you think she loves you. Or if you do—make worried noises about how you could lose half of everything you have, and you might have to cut way back. Does wonders for the prenup. And I know, I know, it’s all wine and roses right now. Call it contingency planning.”
“Too late,” Hemi said calmly. “Hope’s sitting here, and you’re on speaker. And I’m not settling. My marriage was over for years before I moved out of a studio apartment and stopped eating rice and eggs for dinner every night. Anika didn’t take any part in that, and she’s not getting any part of the rest. She gets absolutely bloody nothing, and if that Kiwi attorney you’ve found can’t deliver that message forcefully enough, find one who can. I want her thinking about costs that will break her. I want her to know exactly who she’s up against.”
Walter’s heavy sigh came down the line. “You know, most people take advice from their attorneys.”
