Chapter 22 - adrian appealed and my father wanted another war
Adrian appealed part of the financial judgment.
Expected.
Legal.
Infuriating.
Conrad reacted as though Adrian had personally broken into the mansion again.
“We crush it.”
I stared.
“It’s an appeal.”
“We crush the appeal.”
“The attorneys will answer it.”
“I have three firms better than his.”
“We already have counsel.”
“Change counsel.”
“No.”
My father stopped.
Not because he agreed.
Because the word came from me.
Progress.
The appeal argued that certain financial findings improperly blended marital influence with criminal coercion.
Technical.
Not persuasive according to counsel.
Still unpleasant to read.
Adrian’s filings described me again.
Privileged.
Influenced by father.
Financially sophisticated.
Capable of saying no.
That last phrase made me physically ill.
Capable of saying no.
Therefore perhaps coercion mattered less.
I closed the brief.
Could not reopen it for two days.
When I did, I read it with my own attorney.
Line by line.
Not Conrad.
That mattered.
The appeal failed on the issues that mattered most.
Quietly.
Months later.
No champagne.
No press conference.
Conrad texted:
Told you.
I replied:
You did literally nothing.
His answer:
Moral support.
I laughed.
The first time Adrian’s legal maneuvering had reached into my life without controlling the week around it.
May you like
Progress is sometimes boring.
I was beginning to prefer boring.
Related Stories
