Chapter 11 - THE DIVORCE HE COULDN'T CONTROL
Grant expected the divorce to be about money.
Emily made it about accounting.
The house was jointly owned.
Sell it.
Split equity.
Their personal investment accounts were marital.
Value them.
Divide them.
Her Mercer Family Trust shares were inherited.
Separate.
Grant challenged.
He argued marital labor increased their value.
Maybe.
The court ordered valuation.
Emily accepted.
Grant looked frustrated.
“You’re not even fighting me.”
“I am.”
“Then act like it.”
Emily almost smiled.
He wanted rage.
Rage was easier to dismiss.
Instead, she asked for records.
Every payment to GMM.
Every board expense.
Every personal reimbursement.
Every transfer made during the last eighteen months.
Grant produced most.
Not all.
One payment stood out.
$480,000 from GMM Strategic to a private legal fund.
Purpose:
Executive continuity.
Sarah traced it to the lawyers who prepared Emily’s incapacity package.
Grant had used the advisory entity that would profit from the Dalton deal to fund the legal plan that could give him her vote.
Conflict layered on conflict.
Grant defended it.
“The continuity planning protected the transaction.”
“By removing me.”
“By preventing one shareholder from destroying company value.”
“I was the shareholder.”
“You were my wife.”
Emily stared.
There it was.
The hierarchy.
In Grant’s mind, marriage moved her vote closer to his.
Not legally.
But emotionally.
He believed partnership meant convergence.
May you like
Emily had learned partnership meant two yeses.
Not one louder yes.
