The hotel charges suggested otherwise.

Nine days after Thanksgiving, Natalie contacted me through social media. I think there are things Daniel hasn’t been honest about with either of us.

I didn’t answer right away. Tanya advised against meeting privately but said I could request anything relevant in writing. So I replied: Send whatever you believe is relevant to my attorney.

Natalie sent screenshots. Daniel had told her we’d been separated for eight months. He claimed I lived in the guest room. He told her I had nothing to do with the company and would receive “a fair settlement” from savings that didn’t actually exist.

He promised her a house near the coast once he refinanced ours. And he had asked Natalie to create Northstar Brand Strategies so consulting payments could be moved into an account under her control.

Natalie insisted she’d believed the payments were legitimate business expenses. Whether that was true would be determined by documents, not by my assumptions.