Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN IN SANDY SPRINGS
I believed the explanation was obvious.
Ivan and Paige had resumed their old relationship.
He had rented her a luxury apartment, paid Gemma’s private-school tuition, joined parent groups on Paige’s behalf, and listed himself as Gemma’s guardian.
The accident had exposed what they were trying to hide.
It was a plausible explanation.
That did not make it accurate.
Naomi warned me not to build our case around adultery before verifying the facts.
“Georgia courts care more about the child’s welfare than punishing a spouse for humiliation,” she said. “If marital funds were used, we trace them. If there was an affair, we prove it. We don’t guess.”
I gave her access to seven years of tax returns, account statements, and company distributions.
Ivan had always controlled the larger accounts. I managed household expenses and Sawyer’s education fund, but Bennett Infrastructure Group paid many costs through executive benefits.
That arrangement created convenient shadows.
Paige’s apartment lease listed a Bennett company subsidiary as guarantor.
Gemma’s $31,600 annual tuition had been paid through something called the Executive Family Relocation Program.
The program existed to assist senior employees transferred into Georgia.
Paige had never worked for Bennett Infrastructure.
I called Nathan Cole, Ivan’s personal assistant.
Nathan had purchased Sawyer’s navy jacket after Ivan forgot his birthday.
He answered quietly.
“I’ve been instructed to direct personal inquiries to counsel.”
“Did Ivan tell you to buy the jacket?”
“Yes.”
“Did he choose it?”
“No.”
Sawyer had spent the week telling everyone his father selected the gold buttons because they looked like treasure.
I closed my eyes.
“Did you enroll Gemma at Sawyer’s school?”
Nathan remained silent for several seconds.
“I processed the payment.”
“Why did Ivan sign as her guardian?”
“You need to ask him.”
“I am asking the person who prepared the document.”
“I can’t answer without legal advice.”
He ended the call.
Paige agreed to meet me at a coffee shop near Northside Hospital.
She arrived without Gemma and chose a table near the window.
“Ivan and I are not having an affair,” she said before sitting.
“You were his first love.”
“That was more than twenty years ago.”
“You stayed at the hospital with him while your uninjured daughter went home.”
“Gemma was frightened. Ivan asked me to stay until he knew what happened to Sawyer.”
“That is not what I saw.”
Paige wrapped both hands around her coffee.
“I returned to the United States after my marriage ended. I needed help getting established.”
“So Ivan gave you an apartment.”
“He offered.”
“And tuition.”
“He said Gemma deserved stability.”
“What does your daughter deserve from my husband that his son doesn’t?”
Her expression tightened.
“That isn’t fair.”
“Nothing that happened on that bus was fair.”
Paige looked toward the window.
“I never told Ivan to ignore Sawyer.”
“You told him to place your daughter in Sawyer’s school.”
“I asked about schools. He arranged the rest.”
“Why did he call himself her guardian?”
“I don’t know.”
She lied smoothly, but not comfortably.
Her thumb pressed repeatedly against the edge of her cup.
I changed the question.
“When did you last see Ivan before returning from overseas?”
“Years ago.”
“How many?”
“I don’t remember.”
“You remember.”
Paige stood.
“This conversation is over.”
Naomi later obtained spending records showing Ivan had visited Paige’s hometown in Ohio five years earlier.
He told me that trip was for an acquisition meeting.
There had been no acquisition meeting.
The hotel invoice showed two guests at dinner, champagne delivered to one room, and a second breakfast charged the following morning.
Sawyer had been three months old.
I assumed I had found the lie that explained everything.
Then Naomi called about a separate invoice buried in Ivan’s executive expenses.
It came from an accredited private laboratory in Atlanta.
May you like
The description contained only four words:
Confidential biological relationship analysis.
