Brian wanted the court to reduce my share of the remaining marital assets.
Retirement accounts.
Savings.
Money connected to our second vehicle.
He was asking for nearly a third of my remaining share to be taken away.
His stated reason was financial hardship.
I stared at Claire.
“He’s claiming he’s struggling?”
“Yes.”
“But he earns more than I do.”
“I know.”
“He’s driving a new truck. He put down a deposit on a condo by the lake.”
Claire tapped her pen against the desk.
“What matters is what the court can establish.”
Then she looked at the photographs of the damaged house.
“He filed this motion before you discovered what happened.”
I understood her point.
Brian had apparently expected to present himself as a financially struggling man.
He hadn’t expected the judge to see evidence that the home he’d just vacated had been deliberately damaged.
