Nicholas Sparks - Two by Two

On Monday morning, London woke with a red nose and continuing sniffles. Though she wasn’t coughing, I debated whether to send her to school, but when I suggested as much, she began to fuss.

“The teacher is bringing in her goldfish today, and I get to feed him! Plus, it’s coloring day.”

I wasn’t sure what coloring day entailed, but it was obviously a big deal to her. I gave her some cold medicine at breakfast, and she skipped off to class. I noticed when dropping London off that the teacher had a cold too, which made me feel better about my decision.

On my way back to the car, I caught myself wondering what Vivian was doing and immediately shoved the thought away. Who cares? I reminded myself, but more important, I had a commercial to film later that week and another client I needed to impress.

At the office I was swamped with work. I confirmed everything I needed to film Taglieri’s third commercial on Friday. I touched base with the tech guy for the plastic surgeon, and even managed to meet with an animal trainer who claimed to have just the dog I needed to film the fourth commercial for Taglieri. We set a date for filming on Thursday of the following week.

Which meant, fortunately, that I didn’t have time to think about Vivian much at all.

The settlement agreement was delivered via FedEx on Tuesday afternoon. It also came via email, but I couldn’t bring myself to read either version. Instead, I called Joey Taglieri and asked if he would look it over. We agreed to meet at an Italian restaurant not far from his office the following day.

I found him at a booth in the corner, the table topped with a red and white checkered tablecloth and a manila folder lying on a pad of yellow legal paper. He was drinking a glass of mineral water and when I sat, he slid a piece of paper toward me, along with a pen. “Before we get into this, you need to sign a retainer agreement. I told you that I don’t do family law anymore, but I can make an exception for you. I can also recommend some attorneys, including the guy who handled my second divorce, but I’m not sure how much they’ll be able to help you for reasons I’ll get to in a moment. The point is, no matter who you choose, everything you tell me will be covered by attorney-client privilege, even if you ultimately decide to work with someone else.”

I signed the retainer agreement and slid it back to him. Satisfied, he leaned back. “You want to tell me what happened?”

I told the same story I had to Marge and Liz and my parents and Emily. By then, I felt as though I’d told the story a hundred times. Taglieri jotted notes along the way. When I finished, he leaned back and said, “All right, I think I got it. I also reviewed the document, and I guess the first thing that you should know is that it looks like she intends to file for divorce in Georgia, not North Carolina.”

“Why would she do that?”

“Georgia and North Carolina have different laws. In North Carolina, a couple has to be legally separated for a year before divorce can be granted. That doesn’t mean you have to live in separate places, but both of you have to understand that you’re separated. After the year is up, one of you files for divorce. The other side then has thirty days to file an answer, but that can be sped up a bit, at which point you get on the court calendar. When your time comes, divorce is granted. In Georgia, there is no separated for a year requirement. There is, however, a residency requirement. Vivian can’t file for divorce until she’s been a resident of the state for six months, but after that, it can be granted in thirty days, assuming everything has been worked out between the two of you. In essence, because she’s been living in Atlanta since September eighth-or maybe even before that-she’ll be able to obtain a divorce next March or April, instead of next year around this time. In other words, she cut six months off the process. There are a couple of other differences concerning fault and no fault that I doubt will pertain to you. I’m guessing she’ll file no fault, which essentially means the marriage is broken.”

“So she’s in a rush to dump me, huh?”

“No comment,” he said with a grimace. “Anyway, that’s one of the reasons I’ve decided to offer my services if you want them. I passed the bar in Georgia as well as North Carolina-go Bulldogs!-while the attorneys I used for my divorce haven’t. In other words, it’s either work with me, or get an attorney in Georgia. Also, I made some calls this morning… apparently, Vivian’s attorney is a real piece of work. I’ve never dealt with her, but she has the reputation of being a bully who likes to wear down the other side until they just throw in the towel. She’s also very selective when it comes to clients, so my guess is Spannerman pulled some strings to get her to agree to represent your wife.”

“What do I do? I have no idea where to start.”

“Just what you’re doing right now-you’ve retained legal counsel. And trust me, nobody knows what to do in the beginning unless they’ve been through it before. Long story short, in Georgia, there are documents that will have to be filed, everything from disclosure statements, marital settlement agreements, to an affidavit regarding custody. Her attorney will probably press to have everything ready by the six-month mark, so there’s going to be a lot of back-and-forth between counsel.”

“What about the settlement agreement she sent?”

“That’s essentially a contract between the two of you. It covers alimony and property division, things like that.”

“What about London?”

“That’s where it can get tricky. The courts retain the right to make decisions regarding custody, visitation, and child support. Now, the two of you can come to an agreement and the court will take that into account, but they’re not bound by it. If it’s reasonable, though, the court will usually go along with what the two of you decide. Because London is so young, she won’t have much of a say at all. That’s probably for the best.”

I suspected he’d have to go over all of this again. “What did Vivian want?’

Taglieri reached into the folder and pulled out the agreement. He began to flip through the pages. “As far as property division goes, for the most part, she wants half. That’s half the equity in the house, half the money in your banking and investment accounts, half of your retirement. She wants the SUV and half of the value of the contents of the house, in cash. She also wants an additional chunk of change, which I’m guessing is half the total you invested in your business.”

I suddenly felt as though I’d been donating blood for a week. “Is that all?”

“Well, there’s also alimony.”

“Alimony? She earns more than I do right now and she’s dating a billionaire.”

“I’m not saying she’ll get it. I suspect she’ll use it, along with the rest of the proposed property division, as leverage to get what she really wants.”

“London.”

“Yeah,” he said. “London.”

After my meeting with Taglieri, there was no time to return to the office. Instead, I drove to the school and got there early; I was at the front of the car line. I was looking over the separation agreement-it crowded out all other thoughts-when I heard a tapping on my window.

Emily.

She was wearing tight faded jeans with tears at the knees, along with a formfitting top, and the sight of her made something lift inside me. Opening the door, I stepped out into the sunlight.