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see both parties held life insurance policies to the value of five million dollars. Carefully noting the policy dates and amounts, she kept going through the brief. There were copies of relevant documents including the marriage certificate, the Financial Agreement, various property contracts, vehicle leases, Michael’s employment contract and Phoebe’s partnership agreement with Nilson Banks. Amanda quickly read the section about Michael’s personal information, noting his affair with a woman called Marita Sanchez.
    Opening her favorite spreadsheet application, Amanda carefully listed the relevant amounts and information, creating columns to enter verification information once obtained. She also created sections for missing information, such as identity verification, which she would hopefully be able to add later on.
    Checking over her handiwork, she was pleased. When Charlie came back she would be able to offer her a single page summary of Michael and Phoebe’s assets and liabilities that also detailed what she planned to investigate.
    Getting to work, she started with the easy stuff. Logging into RP Data, she began examining the entries for each property.
     
    *****
     
    Phoebe sat at her desk, having shoed away her solicitous secretary yet again. Even though she had been at work now for several days after the food court episode without fainting, her secretary was checking in on her every few hours.
    Staring at her screen blankly, she struggled to focus. She could have taken a few days off, but going to work was better than sitting around at home dwelling on her situation. That would have driven her mad. She tried to concentrate on her current proposal, risk profiling a major sporting organization. It was interesting work, but she kept getting distracted by thoughts of Charlie. Strangely, now that she knew who the woman was, the dreams had stopped. Instead, she found herself thinking about Charlie in that way while awake. It was disturbing. She realized she had hardly noticed Michael’s lengthy absence. He hadn’t been home for more than a week now. The only feeling she experienced when she reflected on this was gratitude.
    Giving up on the risk profile, Phoebe thought about all the information she had found online about Charlie over the last few days. With a plethora of hits on various legal sites, a charity organization that Charlie was on the board of and various mentions in relation to pro bono work she did from time to time, Phoebe had lots to look at. She had bookmarked an especially attractive photo. Phoebe had even read some of the judgments of Charlie’s cases from the Queensland Courts site.
    From Charlie’s Queensland Bar Association details, Phoebe knew they spent their working days only two city blocks apart. She decided to start taking lunch and coffee breaks so she might have a chance of bumping into Charlie. She would make up the time by staying back later. After all, she no longer cared about getting home for dinner with her husband. Initially happy with her little plan, she suddenly had second thoughts. Am I becoming a stalker? Is this crazy? Am I throwing away my marriage to follow a stranger around?
     
    *****
     
    Bored, Charlie swirled a spoon around in her grande coffee, ruining the intricate design the barista had carefully created in the foam. She was sitting alone at a window table at a new ‘chocolateria’ in George Street. She sighed to herself, wishing Roman was on time for once, especially as this frivolous venue had been his choice. If he had just come to her chambers as she suggested, she could have kept working instead of wasting all this time. Uncharitably, she thought, he’s probably been distracted by something bright and shiny on his way over .
    After rebuking herself for her nasty thought, she realized she had been in a bad mood all morning. It was probably a good thing she was out of the office for a bit. She hadn’t slept well and was concerned about one of her court