January 

Now that Scott had sabotaged my attorney, I was in the process of meeting with different law firms to represent me.  I was shocked that most charged for the initial consultation fee ranging from $200 and up.  More than once, Scott said he wanted to keep our divorce private, claiming that he didn’t want his employer to know, as he was afraid it might affect his job.  Scott repeatedly said to me that he wanted a “peaceful” process and preferred that our attorneys work out the details for the divorce. He was so adamant about keeping it quiet I had this eerie feeling he was up to something and I needed an attorney, pronto.

I was a nervous wreck.  It broke my heart that I couldn’t be with my father during his open heart surgery.  Scott was away traveling on another one of his numerous business trips (looking back I don’t think this trip to Dallas was for business).  And, my intuition was right; Scott had already begun to cast his evil web of lies, deceit and illegal activities.  The first was when the phone rang.  It was my sister-in-law, Allison, calling to tell me my father made it through his open heart surgery and is in recovery.  While on the phone, my son, Cooper, came to tell me there was a man at the door. With the phone to my ear getting the run down on my father’s condition, I went to see who was at the door.

The man standing on our front porch turned out to be a process server. He handed me an envelope in front of my son, and said, “You’ve been served divorce papers.”  Imagine if, at that moment, I had been told my father had died! What happened to “letting our attorneys work it out” as Scott said previously? 

I was steaming mad.  I was certain that this was a deliberate attack, planned for the day of my father’s open heart surgery and in front of our son, no less!  Scott also knew I didn’t have an attorney yet.  So much for letting our attorneys work it out.  He was a heartless bastard.  And that was only the beginning. Things quickly got worse; much, much worse.

Later that evening when reading through Scott’s filing for divorce I was dumfounded.  He now claimed that he was divorcing me, due to the fact that I’m mentally unstable, among dozens of other lies and untruths.  I was appalled to read that he also considered himself to be the primary caretaker of our children, (due to my mental instability) and that I had abandoned the family frequently.  I was literally in shock of the contents of his filing.  My original filing for divorce was your basic:  unreconcilable differences, joint custody, blah, blah, blah.  It was abundantly clear now that Scott was out for war.  And that he planned to follow through on his threats to destroy me and take our children away from me.

I also learned that Scott had submitted two other orders along with his petition for divorce.  One being an Ex Parte’ Mutual Restraining Order for the Preservation of the Marital Estate (MRO), and the other, an Ex Parte’ Order to Maintain the Status Quo (MSQ).  These orders stipulated that neither party could remove or sell any marital property or do anything out of the ordinary in our day-to-day activities.  I was fine with that as it protects us both. In fact, I had written something similar into my original filing.  Little did we know at the time, Scott had already begun selling off our E*Trade Stocks – hiding joint marital funds and violating the very MRO/MSQ Orders he had filed. 

Amicable?  Peaceful?  Let our attorneys work it out?  Scott was out to destroy me and I was scared as hell.