Chapter 15 - The valuation-date hearing
The hearing lasted four days.
No yelling.
Experts.
Spreadsheets.
Prenup language.
Corporate history.
Marcus’s expert argued:
Date of separation should control.
After separation, I no longer contributed to marital partnership.
Project Alder premium arose from post-separation negotiations.
My expert:
The division’s value was substantially established before separation.
Strategic review and banker valuations already existed.
The prenup’s formula contemplated valuation near dissolution unless extraordinary circumstances.
Judge Marlowe asked:
“Does the agreement name a date?”
Not exactly.
It provided methodology and left certain timing to applicable law.
Wonderful drafting.
Then my consulting work.
Bennett had once implied I deserved a share because I “helped build” Fleet Intelligence.
Claire avoided that.
I had been paid for my early consulting.
No double count.
Our argument was about Marcus’s services and negotiated formula.
Not unpaid wife labor.
Then Project Alder timeline.
Board strategic review began before separation.
Buyer outreach before filing.
Exclusive talks after filing.
Signing after Sophie’s birth.
Value existed along a continuum.
Judge did not accept either extreme.
She selected an intermediate valuation framework using data near filing plus adjustment for demonstrable pre-existing Alder value, excluding certain post-filing transaction-specific premium attributable to later events.
Nobody got everything.
Kessler recalculated.
Effect:
My likely settlement-equivalent position increased by about $1.3 million over Marcus’s last offer.
The two-million gap became smaller.
Then Judge Marlowe said:
“I strongly encourage resolution. If you require a final trial, I will hold one.”
Not:
You must settle.
Then Savannah’s sentencing became final.
She served her custodial term.
Probation followed.
No contact.
The criminal case was closed.
No fetal injury.
My bruising healed.
Sophie healthy.
Savannah moved out of the penthouse because North Star terminated her subsidized lease after the criminal case and relationship ended.
Could Marcus transfer it to her?
No obligation.
The purchase option was challenged internally and later canceled under its own conditions after Marcus and Savannah ended their arrangement before the decree.
Savannah threatened civil suit.
Her lawyer advised the option might be enforceable depending terms.
She filed.
That was not my case.
Then Marcus called through the parenting app.
Not about Sophie.
Improper.
“I want to settle.”
I stared at the message.
Claire answered through counsel.
“Then settle through counsel.”
Boundaries.
Third mediation scheduled.
May you like
This time we both arrived knowing trial could happen.
No bluff.
