Chapter 5

Milla packs a lot more punch than Alan. It's probably something to do with Simon being a High Court judge. Diane and her paramour were out of the house within the week.

Diane's actions had pretty much told everyone everything they needed to know, especially the kids. They knew Mummy had a new man and didn't want Daddy around. So she was the one breaking up the family. I was the one who fought to get them back. I didn't have to fight too hard, mind you. As Milla said, Diane shouldn't have moved lover-boy in quite so quickly.

She argued that I had nowhere to live, Diane was the petitioner, and could just as easily move in with LB, and that moving him into the family home so quickly was not good for the children's psychological and emotional well-being. She pointed out that I was continuing to pay my share into the joint account, that I had moved out immediately Diane demanded it, and the problems presented by the ownership and location of the property. Like I said, Mr Responsible Citizen.

The judge directed that she move out and I move back in, pending the full hearing. She, (yes, it was a female judge), directed that the children should stay in the family home, but Diane was to have full access. Milla and I had discussed restrictions but Milla suggested we adopt a fairly non-confrontational pose, for the moment.

Once I was back in my home with the children I got them into a new routine as quickly as possible. Essentially there were only two real changes. They went to their grandparents' house until I came home, and their mother was now a visitor. Yes, that's right; she came over most evenings to see them. I stayed out of her way when she was there, and she had to leave so they could do their homework. We alternated Saturdays and Sundays at the weekends.

To begin with, Diane tried to explain herself to me but I was not ready to listen to her. I had made my decision to move on and that is what I was doing.

I wasn't contesting the divorce but that doesn't mean that things went smoothly. It all fell apart over the reason for the divorce and the 'ancillary relief, ' as the courts call it, and, of course, the children.

I learnt that there are five reasons for divorce in English law, adultery, unreasonable behaviour, desertion, separation with consent, and separation without consent. The consent bit is where both parties to the divorce agree or disagree to the action. If both parties agree they have to have been separated for two years otherwise it has to be five years.

Our options boiled down to adultery or unreasonable behaviour. Diane couldn't petition on the grounds of her adultery, only I could do that ... So she wanted to cite me using unreasonable behaviour. I wasn't about to let her blame me. Nor was I about to pay her costs. My position was that if she tried to cite me for unreasonable behaviour I would cross petition on the grounds of adultery. A contested case would lead to expense and time.

Ancillary relief is the money side of things. Naturally this also depends on who has custody of the children. English courts generally divide the assets equally. Since I had been the higher earner, and owned more of the assets, I was going to be hit hardest. The family home was also a problem. The mother usually gets custody of the children, but I was not about to roll over on this either. I was damned if I was going to lose contact with them and that happens all too easily.

Camilla proposed that we use this as leverage to get Diane to settle using an arbitrator. I hadn't heard of this but when she explained it to me, I thought it held promise. Broadly, the arbitrator would listen to both sides and any agreements we had in place. If there were any disagreements, over property or custody, for example, they could help sort them out. The big advantage for me was that there is no appeal to an arbitrated settlement. There were other advantages too, such as speed and cost. The main problem would be to get Diane to agree to arbitration. That meant that I might have to give a bit more but I would save on costs. More importantly, not only could I have more say in placement of the children but they could have more say also.

Milla and I thrashed out an outline of a settlement. She stopped me being too dogmatic about things, and included some "loss leaders" as she called them. Things that we would be prepared to bargain away in order to hold on to something else. The next move was to get Diane to agree to arbitration.

Milla engaged David in the plan and he did a bit quite unethical subliminal work on Alan preparing him for our proposal. When Milla put it forward he was not entirely receptive to it but he was obliged to put it to Diane anyway. Naturally she rejected it out of hand. Milla then prepared the paperwork for the court case and started by demanding information about Diane's income. This was followed by a request for information about her parent's financial position and details about their bank accounts, in particular any funds they were concealing on her behalf. Subsequently she asked for information on lover boy Peter's income and business interests. This last was most pertinent because he was a part owner of the gym where they had met.

All of this was forwarded to Alan and when each request was passed to Diane, she simply ignored it. We let things sit for a week and then started to pressurise Alan for the information. In her letter, Milla suggested that the information was being withheld so that funds could be concealed. She suggested that if the information was not forthcoming it would be necessary to request it through the courts. She therefore demanded the addresses of Diane's parents, Peter's address, Peter's partner's names and addresses, and all the relevant details about the gym accounts and the accountants responsible for preparing them. Everything Alan had asked for, he already had. Milla was absolutely on the ball. If this came to court we would smell of roses while Diane would be deep in the shit.

Things were not going well for Diane. She had expected to remain in the home with the children and for Jack to settle on her terms. Things didn't happen that way. To begin with, the children became extremely wilful and the atmosphere in the house deteriorated so quickly that Peter stayed in his flat to allow them to settle down. Then Diane was served with the notice to quit and an emergency court hearing.

Suddenly she was out of the house and had nowhere to go but Peter's. She had daily access to the children but Jack had ensured that the terms meant that she could not stay overnight. This was promptly followed by the proposal for arbitration and then the requests for financial information. When she told Peter about the request for information about the business, he told her that his partners would not be forthcoming. Then Alan told her that if the information was not provided voluntarily, then John's solicitor would request it through the courts and anyone withholding it could be held in contempt and may be liable to fines or imprisonment.

The strain told on her. She was comfort eating and then starving herself, her hair lost ts sheen and her skin was either dry or too oily, her weight went up and down and she felt listless all the time. Her libido dropped. She couldn't understand why Jack was doing all this. She had always been able to get him to do what she had wanted. Right from the first kiss.

After the night at the theatre, I found Diane to the forefront of my thoughts, more and more. To the extent that I did something I had never done before. I sent flowers and another invitation to Diane's home. From this the romance gained pace. We spent time together like teenagers at the cinema, dancing, walks at the seaside, countryside, woods, and hills.

It was the fifth date that Diane decided she had better give him a test run in the bedroom.

After an evening of dinner and dancing, where, as usual, Jack, as the driver, had refrained from drinking, they returned to Diane's flat. Diane too had been careful about her drinks. Like Jack she had drunk water with her meal and had only had two glasses of wine towards the end of the evening. She wanted to make sure this evening was one that Jack would remember for the right reasons. She also wanted to make sure she would remember it so she could make the right decision.