The Older Man Part I

Chapter 25

A Long Time Coming

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VINCENT'S POINT OF VIEW

I walked into the courthouse and headed towards the office of the magistrate we needed to speak with for an uncontested divorce.

When I knocked on the door, I heard a woman's voice say come in. I allowed myself entry and was met with the sight of Rachel and Gloria already sitting down in the chairs on one end of the table in the center of the room.

Rachel gave me a crude look when I walked in.

"Mr. Milano, I presume? I'm Sylvia Carvajal. I'm the magistrate who will be overseeing your case today." A dirty blonde haired woman stood up to shake my hand. "Yes, ma'am. Hello." I smiled at her as I shook her hand before we both took our seats.

"Alright, let's get down to business here," the magistrate said in a low tone before turning her attention to Rachel and I, "is there an agreement on the separation of your shared property division?" She asked.

Rachel remained quiet while she let Gloria speak for her.

"My client has advised me prior to today's meeting that she and Mr. Milano," she moved her eyes to the corners of their sockets to look in my direction, "had agreed upon their shared desire to grant Dr. Milano all shared property and assets."

"Mr. Milano, is that true?" The magistrate raised her eyebrows at me for confirmation.

"Yes, ma'am, it is," I answered.

She looked down at the papers in front of her with a look of disbelief on her face. "Okay, I suppose that's settled then."

"The home on 1378 Foxworth Avenue will need to be signed over to Dr. Milano so she can be recognized by the state as the sole owner of said property, as well as the condo in New York, and the 20 acres of land located at 84376 Robin Crest Lane, Northbrook, IL," the magistrate said looking at me.

I nodded. "I've already scheduled a meeting with our real estate attorney to get that taken care of," I informed her.

She made a face of acknowledgment. "Very good. There is also the matter of your joint credit union account at Northbrook Federal. Am I correct to say that you've agreed to turn over the full sum of $726,089.13 to Dr. Milano?" The magistrate asked, repositioning her glasses on the bridge of her nose.

For the past 15 years of being an architect, I've brought in a very decent income and every month of all these years, I set aside a sixth of my monthly salary and placed into that credit union account for life insurance policies and emergency situations.

Out of all that money, I had invested about $340,000 from my own earnings while Rachel invested the remaining amount. We were almost equal in our shared investments; she obviously put in more money than I did because her income was higher.

A part of me wanted to fight back because of that money but I knew that if I did then Rachel would go for the jugular and let slip the true nature of the check I got from Adam. She'd really screw me over then.