Chapter 3 - Daniel Had Already Met With a Custody Lawyer
The next morning, Claire opened the joint household account.
Not because she was snooping.
Because she needed enough money for clothes, school supplies, and somewhere to stay if she did not return home.
A transaction from twelve days earlier caught her attention.
HARRIS & LOWELL FAMILY LAW — $750 CONSULTATION
Claire stared at it.
Daniel had never mentioned seeing a lawyer.
She searched the firm.
Divorce.
Custody.
High-net-worth family disputes.
Protective parenting orders.
Claire sat motionless at Rebecca’s kitchen table.
She called her own attorney before she called Daniel.
By noon, she understood something important:
Seeing a divorce lawyer was not wrongdoing.
Daniel had every right to consider ending the marriage.
What mattered was what he had been preparing.
Claire’s attorney told her:
“Do not assume. Preserve records. Don’t delete anything. Don’t confront him emotionally.”
That advice irritated her.
Then she remembered the overturned table.
The broken glass.
Her slap.
She understood.
Daniel had already seen a lawyer.
And less than two weeks later, Claire had lost control in front of a room full of witnesses.
That did not prove a setup.
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But it was enough to make her ask why Margaret had told Noah that people were coming to see “what she was really like.”
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