Mai Faced The Ledger She Had Asked Me To Ignore

The investigator gave me a receipt for the documents she copied. I kept the originals when she finished with them.

She asked when I had learned about the MX account, whether I had benefited from it, and whether I had ever allowed Mai to sign my name.

Some questions hurt. None were unfair.

"She could negotiate licenses," I said. "She could sign as our company's agent. She couldn't pretend to be me."

I showed her the clause requiring both approvals for banking changes.

She read it twice.

Weeks later, we returned to Family Court for the accounting dispute. By then, the sale had been canceled in writing. Gideon had surrendered any claim to the masters, licenses, or shop. His company had paid back the $84,000, but the civil case still required a final agreement on the remaining claims.

Mai's lawyer had stopped claiming the company owned my prewedding designs.

That left the money, the business, and what she had done to hide them.

Felix wore a clean jacket with one loose cuff button. On the witness stand, he explained his columns without using words meant to impress anyone.

"The studio received eighteen thousand six hundred dollars," he said. "The second account received two hundred ninety-three thousand eight hundred eighty dollars. Together they equal the net distributions."

Anika asked whether his figure counted the royalties twice.

"No."

Whether it treated legitimate contract fees as stolen funds.

"No. Those fees were deducted before these distributions."

Whether the hidden money had bought cloth or paid employees.

"The records showed no such payments."

Mai watched him with the same look she gave a buyer who asked for too many changes.

But she could not move the meeting along.

When she testified, her lawyer asked about the work she had done for Small Repeat.

She described trade calls, late payments, sample books, and years of buyers who would not return messages.

All of that was true. I had watched her do it.

Then Anika asked about the account change.

"Did Seng sign it in your presence?"

"No."

"Did he authorize the signature on that form?"

Mai looked at her lawyer. After a pause, she answered.

"No."

"Who placed it there?"

"I did."

The room did not change shape. The clock kept moving. I had imagined that admission so often that hearing it felt almost small.

"Why?" Anika asked.

"Because every decision became a discussion."

Her lawyer closed his eyes for a moment.

That was the whole marriage in one sentence, stripped of its nice jacket.

The judge's written findings came later. They described the undisclosed account, the false approval, and the missing cashier's check on her financial statement. The order kept the recovered money protected while the final tax work and property settlement were completed.

It also required Mai to cover $22,400 of my documented legal and accounting costs caused by the concealment and false filings.

Anika showed me the invoices supporting that amount. I signed nothing until I had read them.

An independent appraisal valued the studio business at $96,000, after its listed debts and without pretending it owned my separate copyrights. The equipment, active orders, and business goodwill had real value.

I offered $48,000 for Mai's half, paid from my eventual share of the recovered funds. She accepted through her lawyer.

Before making the offer, I sat with Felix and worked out six months of shop costs. Rent was $1,650 a month. The staff wages were already in the ledger. I allowed for utilities, cloth deposits, insurance, and one slow month. The chairs on order could carry those costs. I would have to keep cutting, and I would have to learn the work upstairs. Owning both halves would not make either half easy. I made the offer because the figures supported it.

"You always said the shop was tired," I told her during the final settlement meeting.

"It is."

"Then I'll fix what needs fixing."

We signed schedules for our cars, retirement accounts, apartment deposit, and the royalties earned through the agreed cutoff date. Neither of us sought ownership of the other's separate property. Our joint lease would end when Mai moved out. I had already found a small apartment near the studio.

There would be no hidden page left for later.

In the hall, she caught up with me.

"You could have let me explain before you brought strangers in."

I held the binder against my side.

"I asked you where the account was. You asked me to dinner."

She looked down at my hands.

"I didn't think you'd do all this."

"Neither did I."

That evening, Anika called. Gideon had signed the final civil agreement, giving up every claim under the sale and agreeing to cooperate with the investigation. Then she read me a second message.

Mai and Gideon had each been charged over the forged approvals.