Chapter 4 - Victoria Had Already Filed for Divorce
Nathan’s attorney confirmed it the next morning.
Victoria had filed a petition for dissolution in Sonoma County three days earlier.
It had not yet been formally served on:
Nathan.
Why not?
Her attorney had arranged private service for the following week.
After Victoria was already gone.
Legal.
Unusual.
Not impossible.
Nathan stared at his attorney.
“She was going to leave the country before serving me?”
“Yes.”
“Can she do that?”
“She can travel.”
“What about our property?”
“Filing creates automatic temporary restraints on certain transfers once service occurs. Before service, the procedural timing becomes more complicated, but she cannot simply steal jointly held assets.”
Good.
No magic disappearance with half the estate.
Then the prenuptial agreement.
Nathan and Victoria had signed one before marriage.
Both had separate counsel.
Nathan owned most of the vineyard interests before the marriage.
Victoria owned a successful luxury hospitality company she later sold.
Both had substantial separate assets.
Community property existed.
Joint investments.
The house itself?
The vineyard estate belonged to Cole Vineyard Holdings, not either spouse personally.
Victoria had no authority to throw Emma off company property permanently.
Nathan chaired the holding company.
That made her sentence:
my property
legally absurd.
Emotionally revealing.
Then the real financial question.
What had Julian been doing?
Nathan’s CFO reviewed recent company activity.
No missing millions.
No secret sale.
No unauthorized mortgage.
No catastrophic transfer.
But a project existed.
Cedar Ridge Hospitality Conversion.
A plan to convert an underused section of the estate into a private luxury lodging and wellness compound.
Victoria had championed it.
Nathan initially supported exploration.
Then put it on hold six months earlier because Emma’s school and custody schedule made him reluctant to turn the family residence into a heavier commercial operation.
Victoria hated the delay.
Why?
She had personally designed the hospitality concept.
After selling her own company, she wanted a new operating role.
Nathan kept saying:
“After harvest.”
Then:
“After school stabilizes.”
Then:
“When Emma is older.”
Victoria began hearing one message.
Emma comes first.
The project comes second.
Victoria comes third.
Then Julian.
He found external investors interested in buying the concept rights and hiring Victoria to develop a similar property overseas.
Not theft.
Opportunity.
She accepted privately.
The trip was for final negotiations.
Then divorce filing.
Victoria had decided to leave Nathan and pursue the project independently.
Painful.
Legal.
Her right.
So why throw Emma out?
The divorce did not require that.
The trip did not require that.
Something else had happened between Victoria and the child.
May you like
And Nathan intended to find out exactly what.
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