Chapter 5 - The Bank Statements Never Sent — Who Really Paid the Legal Fees?
Leaving Charlotte screaming behind the closed doors of the hotel suite, I drove
straight to the financial district in Brickell. I needed cold, hard facts. If my
mother and Charlotte had conspired to hide my child, what else had they
manipulated during the collapse of my marriage five years ago?
I walked into the law offices of Harrison & Sterling, the firm that had handled
my divorce from Camilla. Mark Harrison, an old friend of my late father, looked
surprised to see me unannounced in his corner office.
“Lucas? I heard you were back in Florida. Congratulations on the upcoming
wedding,” Mark said, rising from his leather armchair to shake my hand.
“Mark, I need the complete archival file from my divorce,” I said without
preamble, ignoring the pleasantries. “Every draft, every email, and the itemized
billing logs.”
Mark’s smile faded. “Lucas, those records have been archived in our secure
off-site servers for five years. Why do you need them now?”
“Because I just found out I have a four-year-old son, and I need to know why
Camilla signed away her right to spousal support and post-divorce mediation
without a single court appearance.”
Mark’s face tightened. He sat back down and gestured toward the leather chair
opposite his desk. “Lucas, you need to understand something. When your divorce
was finalized, we represented you. But the fees were billed directly to your
family trust.”
“Show me the billing entries, Mark. Now.”
Ten minutes later, Mark placed a thick red binder on the mahogany desk between
us. As I flipped through the itemized time logs from August 2019, my hands began
to tremble with pure rage.
There were three separate meetings billed under the title: “Pre-filing
Settlement Consultation — Client Representative: Evelyn Vance & Charlotte
Montgomery.”
Charlotte had been sitting in on the strategy meetings with my divorce attorney
two full months before Camilla and I had even signed the separation agreement.
Even worse, there was an intercepted correspondence from Camilla’s former legal
aid attorney. Camilla had attempted to file an emergency motion for conciliation
and child support notification in September 2019. The motion had been struck
from the docket after a settlement waiver was filed, signed with Camilla’s name.
“Look at this signature,” I demanded, thrusting the waiver under Mark’s nose.
“Look at the slant of the letters. Camilla writes with a distinct left-handed
backslant. This is a right-handed forgery!”
Mark adjusted his glasses, his expression turning pale. “Lucas, that document
was delivered by your mother’s private courier with a notarized stamp from a
bank in Coral Gables.”
“A bank where Charlotte’s uncle sits on the executive board,” I spat out. “You
let them forge a legal waiver to strip my wife of her rights before the ink was
even dry on the divorce decree!”
Mark swallowed hard, the color draining from his cheeks. “If what you’re saying
is true... this isn't just a civil dispute. This is criminal fraud and
obstruction of justice.”
“You have twenty-four hours to pull every piece of correspondence between my
mother, Charlotte, and this firm,” I said, standing up and towering over his
May you like
desk. “Because if you don’t hand it over willingly, I will bring the Florida
State Bar and the state prosecutor into this office by tomorrow morning.”
