Chapter 7 - PAULA WASN’T THE MASTERMIND
For weeks, everyone assumed Paula had designed everything because the LLC and destination account were in her name.
Reality was messier.
Investigators recovered enough communications to show Mark had initiated the idea.
He knew a mortgage broker.
He gathered property information.
He had access to my tax documents because we filed jointly.
Paula understood the routing structure.
Teresa encouraged secrecy.
Different roles.
Shared responsibility.
Paula eventually cooperated.
Not heroically.
Strategically.
She had two children.
Her attorney advised her that continuing to protect Mark would make her own situation worse.
Through counsel, she admitted she knew I had not agreed to the loan.
That mattered.
She also admitted Mark told her:
“Once the money moves, Cat will be angry, but she won’t leave because Chloe loves me.”
That sentence nearly broke me.
Not because he believed I loved him.
Because he counted Chloe’s attachment to him as leverage.
Paula’s cooperation also uncovered another account.
Not offshore.
Not glamorous.
A domestic brokerage account.
Mark had been quietly putting away money for eighteen months.
Approximately $74,000.
Some legitimate consulting income.
Some marital funds.
Some transfers I had never seen.
He had money.
That was the part that made the $650 dinner uglier.
He was not helpless.
He was comfortable letting me pay because he preferred his money protected and mine circulating.
Family economics, Mark-style:
My resources were collective.
May you like
His resources were strategic.
---
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(1048x378:1050x380)/Jenna-Bush-Hager-100223-c94955eb572d47ea815a340c18c6e771.jpg)
