expense of all our other grandchildren and all our remaining unmarried children. I
won’t permit it’
‘I’ll be the judge of that.’
No, you will not. It will be a real judge, in a real court. Or you will treat all
our children equally and not attempt to favour five grandchildren while ignoring
forty-seven others.’
‘Maureen, you’ve never behaved this way in the past.’
‘In the past you never broke up our partnership. But now that you have done so, that
break up will be on terms that strike both of us as equitable… or you can tell it
to the judge. Brian, you can’t cast me off like an old shoe and then expect me to
continue to accept your rulings as docilely as I have done all these years. I say
again: quit behaving like Woodie as a child. Now… stipulating that we have agreed,
or will agree, on what is earmarked for marriage allowances, how do you want to
divide up the rest of it?’
‘Eh? Three equal portions. Of course.’
‘You’re giving me two portions? That’s generous of you, but more than I had
expected.’
‘No, no! A share for you, a share for me, a share for Marian. Even all the way
around.’
‘Where is the fourth share? The one for my husband.’
‘You’re getting married again?’
‘No immediate plans. I may.’
‘Then we’l1 cross that bridge when we come to it’
‘Briney, Briney! Your needle is stuck in a groove. Can’t you get it through your
head that you cannot force me to accept your fiancée as co-owner of the property you
and I have accumulated together? Half of it is mine. Fair is fair.’
‘Damn it, Mo, you cooked and kept house. I am the one who got out there and
struggled to build up a fortune. Not you.’
‘Where did the capital come from, Briney?’
‘Huh?’
‘Have you forgotten? How did we ring the cash register? For that matter how did it
come about that you knew ahead of time the date of Black Tuesday? Did I have
something to do with it? Briney, I’m not going to argue it because you don’t want to
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be fair about it. You keep trying to hand over to your new love some of my half of
what you and I accumulated together. Let’s take it into court and let a judge
decide. We can do it here, a community property state, or in California, another
community property state, or in Missouri where you can count on it that a judge
would give me more than half. In the mean time I will ask for temporary alimony -‘
‘Alimony!’
‘ – and child support for six children while the court determines what my share,
plus alimony, plus child support, adds up to.’
Brian looked astounded. ‘You intend to strip me bare? Just because I knocked up
Marian?’
‘Certainly not, Brian. I don’t even want alimony. What I do want… and expect…
and insist on – or we go to court over it is this: after an equitable arrangement
for support of the children and for their marriage allowances, based on what we have
done for our married children in the past and based on what you are now sending to
Betty Lou for our children in Kansas City… once the kids are taken care of, I want
exactly half, right down the middle. Otherwise we let a judge settle it.’
Brian looked grim. ‘Very well’:
‘Good. Make up two lists, two halves, and then we can draw up a formal property
settlement, one we can file with the court. Where do you intend to divorce me?
Here?’
‘If you have no objection. Easiest.’
‘All right.’
It took Brian all that weekend to make the two property lists. On Monday night fie
showed them to me.
`Here they are. Here is a summary list of my half, and here is yours.’
I looked at them and could sec at once that the totals matched… and I suppressed a
need to whistle at the totals. I had not guessed even to the nearest million how
wealthy we were.