The Water Between Us

Simone spent the afternoon on the phone with bankers, attorneys, and the chief financial officer of her clinics. By dusk, every account tied solely to her name was frozen against outside transfers.

At seven, an encrypted email arrived from Atlantic Crown Bank.

Attached was the authorization request.

Simone opened it on Evelyn’s old desktop computer.

Her signature sat at the bottom.

It looked perfect.

Except it was wrong.

“She copied the loop,” Simone murmured.

Evelyn leaned closer. “Who?”

“Rebecca.”

“You know that?”

“Years ago, I changed how I sign the S in Simone after a patient forged my name on a prescription pad. I never updated the signature image David kept for business filings.”

She pointed to the screen. “This is the old version.”

Evelyn’s mouth tightened. “Then somebody used a stored copy.”

Simone called her longtime attorney, Marcus Lane, in Raleigh.

He answered on the second ring.

“Simone. I heard about the hospital. I’m sorry.”

“I need you to be my lawyer, not my friend.”

His voice changed immediately. “Tell me.”

She did.

When she finished, Marcus said, “Do not contact David about the transfer. Do not accuse him. Send me everything.”

“Why?”

“Because if this is fraud, I want them comfortable enough to make a second mistake.”

“Them?”

“You already said Rebecca may be involved.”

Simone stared through the window at the dark yard.

“I want a divorce.”

Marcus exhaled. “All right.”

“And I want to know exactly what he’s been doing with my money.”

“That will take discovery.”

“Start tonight.”

“Simone, there’s something else.”

Her stomach tightened. “What?”

“David’s company borrowed against a guarantee you signed eighteen months ago.”

“I signed a limited guarantee for the warehouse expansion.”

“That’s what I believed too. The document filed with the lender is broader.”

“How broad?”

“It appears to pledge your trust distributions as secondary collateral.”

Simone stood so quickly the chair scraped the floor.

“I never agreed to that.”

“I know.”

“Then how is it there?”

“That’s what we need to find out.”

Evelyn placed a hand over Simone’s wrist.

Marcus continued, “I’m filing an emergency petition tomorrow morning to restrict any marital transfer over twenty-five thousand dollars until the court reviews the financial records.”

“Do it.”

“You should also expect David to panic.”

“He already left me to drown. I’m done being afraid of his panic.”

After the call, Evelyn poured two glasses of sweet tea.

“You know what scares men who live by control?” she asked.

“What?”

“Paperwork.”

Simone laughed once, then covered her mouth because the sound felt disloyal to her daughter.

Evelyn understood.

“You’re allowed to laugh and grieve in the same body,” she said.

Simone looked down.

“I was going to name her Ava.”

Evelyn’s eyes filled.

“Then say her name.”

“Ava Carter.”

“No.” Evelyn shook her head gently. “Say the name that belongs to your heart, not to that man.”

Simone swallowed.

“Ava Simone Brooks.”

“That’s better.”

The next morning Marcus called before sunrise.

“Your petition is filed. Hearing at two.”

“That fast?”

“Emergency asset cases move when the evidence is strong.”

“Will David be there?”

“He’ll be served within the hour.”

At eight twenty, David called.

She did not answer.

At eight twenty-two, he sent a message.

You froze our money?

At eight twenty-four:

Simone, call me before you destroy everything.

At eight thirty:

Rebecca had nothing to do with this.

Simone stared at the third message.

She had never told him she suspected Rebecca.

She forwarded the messages to Marcus.

He called immediately.

“Do not respond.”

“He mentioned her without me saying her name.”

“I saw.”

“So he knows.”

“It proves he anticipated the accusation. It doesn’t yet prove the transfer.”

“But it’s something.”

“It’s something.”

At the hearing, Simone appeared by video from Marcus’s office in Beaufort. David sat at a table in Raleigh beside his attorney, Thomas Vane.

He looked tired and furious.

The judge reviewed the transfer request, the signature discrepancy, and the loan guarantee.

Vane argued that Carter Logistics required flexible access to family assets because Simone had historically supported the company.

Marcus replied, “Support is not the same as consent to forgery.”

David’s jaw flexed.

The judge issued temporary restrictions on transfers and ordered expedited production of financial records.

Then she looked directly at David.

“Mr. Carter, until this court determines what occurred, you are prohibited from attempting to access any separate property belonging to your wife.”

David nodded.

“Yes, Your Honor.”

The hearing ended.

Simone stood to leave.

Her phone buzzed.

A new message from David.

You have no idea what you just did.

A second arrived seconds later.

There are people you don’t understand.

Simone read both twice.

For the first time, the money no longer frightened her.

The warning did.

Before bed, Marcus emailed a preservation notice to David, Carter Logistics, Rebecca, and every bank connected to the company. It instructed them not to delete messages, alter files, destroy devices, or dispose of paper records.

“Will that stop them?” Simone asked.

“It will make destruction more expensive if they try.”

Evelyn snorted. “Lawyers have a strange way of saying consequences.”

Marcus smiled. “That is most of the profession.”

Simone read the notice twice before approving it.

A month earlier, legal language would have felt distant from her life. Now phrases like adverse inference and spoliation sounded like doors being bolted.

“Send it,” she said.

Marcus did.