"I know that this is a shock to you, but you will survive. I'll bring her over for a visit when we get back." She answered.
I realized that she thought that I was speaking metaphorically, but before I could correct her, she had closed the door behind her.
I was stunned. Here I thought that the news I was given less than an hour ago was the worst thing that could happen to me. Now I was given even worse news. Not only was I not given a chance to tell the love of my life that I was dying, but I was not even given the opportunity to tell my daughter goodbye. This was completely unacceptable. It was now all out war.
I called my friend, Jack Slade, He has been my attorney since he passed the Bar Exam. In our sophomore year of high school, I stopped a couple of guys from picking on him. In turn, he tutored me in math. We've been best friends ever since. I told him what was going on, and he cleared his schedule for me. We were to meet at 9:00 AM Monday morning.
"Andrew, have you thought about hiring a PI to check on them?"
"No, I haven't gotten that far ahead in my thinking to consider that yet. Honestly, since this is a 'No Fault' state, and she says that all she wants is her personal belongings, I didn't think it would really matter. Besides, they are going to be gone for a whole month, and I will most likely be dead by the time they get back. I don't really even know where they are going."
"Well, since you can afford it without even noticing the money spent, we might as well at least try to get some information on them. Besides, who knows what you might find out. I have a really good PI that I use. Former military intelligence with quite a lot of connections."
"Fine. Get him on board. I don't have much information, but his name is Michael Simpson, and he's a lawyer for the Simpson Law Group. I will also forward you photos as well as all pertinent information on Anne and Olivia in case that helps track them down."
"OK. Good." He replied. "Now you need to start protecting yourself. Go online and cancel every credit card in your name. Transfer every penny in your joint accounts to accounts in only your name, then cancel the joint accounts. If we were going for a divorce, that would frowned upon, but since the divorce will never get near a courtroom, it will be fine. Also, we can use the divorce petition that she gave you to show that she didn't want anything out of the divorce anyway. You can take care of all the insurance and retirement accounts after our meeting on Monday. We will discuss that in our meeting."
After ending the phone call, I got down my bottle of 12-year-old single malt scotch that I had been saving for a special occasion. Since I didn't foresee any special occasions in the future, I decided to use it tonight. I fired up my laptop and proceeded to go through the accounts. I paid off and canceled every credit card we had. I did a transfer from our joint checking and savings accounts to my personal checking account that I kept so I could buy Anne gifts. She had this habit of checking our joint account and seeing things that I had purchased on a regular basis. The first couple of years we were together, I couldn't surprise her with anything. After that, I began purchasing her gifts from a personal account that she had no access to.
I spent much of the weekend doing my best to expunge Anne from my life. I went through the entire house and removed anything that had any connection to her. All her clothes that she left went out to the back yard in a pile. All of our wedding photos, vacation photos, our marriage license, and anything else that included her were heaped on the pile. I took a video of everything. Lastly, I got her wedding dress out of storage. I videoed myself slicing it to pieces with a box cutter before throwing it on the heap. I squirted a whole bottle of lighter fluid on the mound (never use gasoline, it is too volatile, and you can get severely injured when it flares up), then threw a lit book of matches on it. After that, I emptied out the safe deposit box where we kept all her really expensive jewelry and several certificates of deposit that we had as investments. I cashed in the CDs, then took every piece of jewelry that was in the box, as well as what she had left behind, and put them up for auction on eBay. Anything that didn't sell within the next 10-days would go to pawn shops and thrift stores a couple of states away.
I got a text message from a private number on Sunday. The display just showed as 'Private', so I couldn't even track it. It showed a photo of Anne and Olivia playing on a beach with Michael. To me, it was just another beach somewhere in the world. Still, I forwarded the text to Jack. After forwarding that text, I replied with one of my own. It included the link to the cloud storage site of my video. I added a message to my text. 'You can keep whatever personal affects that you still have.' The reply I received is not fit for print.
Monday morning, I met Jack and a guy who just went by the name Gus. He was a serious looking guy. We began discussing options. Obviously, divorce was a moot point. It was more about what I wanted to happen after my death and how to set things up. Basically, I wanted my daughter to be well taken care of. I also didn't want my wife to benefit at all. We decided on trust funds for Olivia. One trust would be set up for her education. I wanted it to be funded to pay for whatever education she wanted. It would even cover the full cost of medical school until she got her full medical license. Anything left over after that would be given to her to begin her life and career. Another trust was set up where she would have access to everything when she turned 30-years-old. Physical assets (cars, the house, etc.) would be held in trust until she turned old enough to responsibly use them. That trust would be administered by my brother, so he would be able to live in the house while Olivia was growing up. He and his wife were renting an apartment in town, so this would help them with that. She would get my vehicles to use when she got her driver's license. The house would be given to her when she turned 18 and graduated high school. There was a third trust set up with Jake's discrimination to take care of Olivia from between my death and her 18
th
birthday. It was set up in case something happened, and Olivia needed additional support. The last issue was that I had my brother and his wife named as Olivia's guardians if something happened to Anne. His daughter and my daughter were about the same age, and they got along really well. I fully intended something to happen to Anne, but I didn't want an Officer of the Court to know about that.
"Do you have any idea where they are?" Asked Gus.
"No. She refused to tell me where they were going. I did get a picture message the other day of them on a beach, but all I can tell is that it is just another beach somewhere." I replied as I pulled the photo up and showed it to them. "The phone was set to Private, so there is no number to be used. Also, Anne left her phone with her mother, so I can't even use the Find My Phone app to try and locate her."
Gus spent a few minutes examining the photo, then said, "I think that I know where they might be. You see that ship in the background? That's a cruise ship that regularly stops in the Cayman Islands. Over in the upper right side is the corner of a resort building. It doesn't have the full logo, but the part that is shown looks like one of the better resorts in the islands as well. From what you have told us about what she said about her lover, he seems to be really well off. That means that he would use one of the better resorts. I have a couple of friends that retired to the islands, so I'll send this photo to them and have them start trolling the areas around this resort to see if they can spot them. I also have his name, and I can do some online checking to see what other information I can get. I do need to warn you that this won't be cheap."
I looked over at Jack and said, "After the Power of Attorney form is signed, send Gus a $20,000 retainer." Looking back to Gus I added, "I want to know everything they do and everywhere they go. I want to know who they meet with as well. Jack said that you have a lot of really good contacts. My soon-to-be ex-wife took my daughter out of the country without my permission. I have no idea who she is associating with. While I want the information, my first priority is the safety of my daughter."
"I understand." He smiled at me.
The rest of the meeting was mainly details and signing assorted papers. I left Jack a check from one of my new accounts for his retainer.