Julian’s legal team attempted to challenge the admissibility of the documents, then the validity of the ownership chain, then the characterization of the transfers, then the suggestion of concealment in the affair. Each move was answered. The trouble for Julian was not that Eleanor had one dramatic piece of evidence. It was that she had systems of evidence, interlocking and consistent. Her own mind had designed much of the architecture he tried to manipulate. She knew where redundancies lived. She knew which logs he would forget. She knew that men who think women are peripheral often explain themselves more fully in front of them than they would in front of other men.
Vanessa disappeared from public view for a month.