Chapter 5 - The Deposition
The deposition took place on the forty-second floor of a glass skyscraper overlooking the Chicago River.
The room was vast, dominated by a long polished mahogany table surrounded by black leather chairs. Outside, a thick November fog hung over the city, reducing the tall buildings to shadowy silhouettes against a grey sky.
I sat on the right side of the table, flanked by Eleanor Shaw and two associate attorneys. I was dressed in a dark green wool dress, my hair pulled back into a neat bun, wearing simple pearl earrings. I looked composed, professional, and entirely unshakeable.
Vincent sat directly across from me. Beside him was Richard Sterling—a tall, hawk-nosed man with slicked-back hair and an air of supreme arrogance. Vincent looked immaculate as always, but there were dark circles under his eyes, and his jaw remained tightly clenched throughout the preliminary introductions.
A court reporter sat at the end of the table, her fingers poised over the stenography machine.
"We are on the record," the reporter announced softly.
Richard Sterling began first. He leaned forward, aiming his cold gaze straight at me. "Mrs. Carter, isn't it true that during the final weeks of your pregnancy, you experienced severe anxiety regarding your husband’s work schedule?"
"I experienced normal concerns about my husband's availability during a high-risk pregnancy," I answered clearly, my voice resonant in the quiet room.
"And isn't it true," Sterling continued, his tone dripping with theatrical sympathy, "that on the night of October thirty-first, when you were admitted to Northwestern Memorial, you were under extreme physical distress that caused you to misinterpret conversations occurring around you?"
"I did not misinterpret anything," I said. "My husband was asked by my mother to stay because I was hemorrhaging. He stated he could not leave his engagement and hung up the phone."
"Objection," Sterling snapped. "Non-responsive to the specific question regarding her cognitive state."
"Overruled," Eleanor said coldly. "The witness answered accurately. Move on, counsel."
Sterling sneered, but adjusted his papers. "Let us talk about your departure from the marital home. You took an infant, fifteen days old, without consulting a pediatrician, and relocated to an undisclosed location. Would you consider that the behavior of a stable, rational mother?"
"I moved my son to a secure, medically supervised facility because his father had abandoned us at the hospital and failed to provide a safe, honest environment at home," I replied smoothly. "And as the medical records already submitted show, my son's health improved drastically under my exclusive care."
Sterling narrowed his eyes, realizing he was not getting the emotional outburst he had planned for. He looked at Vincent, who gave him a brief, imperceptible nod.
"Let us talk about your financial claims," Sterling shifted tactics. "You allege that Mr. Carter concealed marital assets. Yet, as primary owner of Carter Logistics and Development, Mr. Carter has full legal authority to reallocate corporate capital as he sees fit for business growth. Are you claiming you possess the financial expertise to judge his corporate restructuring?"
I looked directly at Vincent. He didn't break eye contact, his cold gray eyes attempting to assert the same quiet dominance he had used over me for five years.
"I don't need a degree in corporate finance to recognize a fraudulent transfer, Mr. Sterling," I said quietly.
Eleanor reached into her leather folder and pulled out a stack of blue-bound exhibits, sliding them across the mahogany table toward Sterling and Vincent.
"Exhibits D through H," Eleanor announced loudly for the court reporter. "These are certified bank logs from the First Royal Bank of Nassau, timestamped November first, 3:42 AM. They show a transfer of eleven point two million dollars from the Carter Family Revocable Trust to an entity named Vance Maritime Holdings."
Richard Sterling’s expression froze. He looked down at the documents, then quickly looked at Vincent, whose jaw twitched sharply.
"These records were obtained via an international financial discovery subpoena granted by the Federal District Court yesterday afternoon," Eleanor continued, her voice cutting through the silent room like a broadsword. "Mr. Carter swore under penalty of perjury in his financial affidavit three days ago that no marital funds exceeding fifty thousand dollars had been transferred outside the state of Illinois within the last ninety days."
"This... this is an administrative reallocation related to an ongoing commercial joint venture," Sterling stammered, his polished arrogance suddenly dissolving into legal damage control. "This is proprietary corporate information that has no bearing on custody!"
"It has every bearing on custody," Eleanor countered fiercely. "It demonstrates a deliberate, criminal attempt to deplete the marital estate while my client was undergoing emergency surgery. It establishes a pattern of bad-faith conduct that directly impacts Mr. Carter’s credibility as a fit guardian."
Vincent slowly leaned forward, placing his large hands flat against the mahogany table. He ignored his lawyer, ignored Eleanor, and locked his eyes onto mine.
"Nora," he said, his voice dropping into that dark, intimate tone he had used whenever he wanted to pull me back into his orbit. "You are destroying everything we built. You are letting stranger ruin our family's future for the sake of your pride."
I looked at him—at the handsome face, the expensive suit, the absolute emptiness behind his eyes. I felt no anger left, only a deep, profound pity for the woman I had been five years ago when I married him.
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"You destroyed our family fifteen days ago, Vincent," I said softly, standing up from my chair. "When you chose a hotel room in Nassau over your dying wife and your newborn son. I am just cleaning up the wreckage."
I turned to Eleanor. "We are finished here."
