Barrett blurted out before his attorney could stop him, “She refused out of spite.”

I looked at him calmly. “You handed me those papers three days after my mother’s funeral, and told me they were routine filings that needed a signature.”

Judge Lawson examined the document through her glasses. “This agreement would have transferred her entire seventy-four-percent stake to you for the nominal sum of ten dollars.”

Paige gasped. Barrett dropped his gaze to the table.

I turned back to the bench. “Your Honor, I didn’t bring these records to humiliate my husband. I brought them because he asked this court to believe I was a helpless dependent — no capability, no income, no role in building the life our sons enjoy.”

The judge nodded. “Where have you and the children been living since the separation?”