“My mom sold the Apothecary for a million dollars and now she’s going to travel the world.”—Your son.

“Ah, no . . . she’ll be opening in the spring.”—Your other son, a short time later, when asked about the sale of the Apothecary.

Those two statements were made early in the new year, 2022.

Naturally, upon learning about this—and having knowledge of your family’s lovely (and very recent) vacation in the Dominican Republic—I had my lawyer contact your wife’s lawyer about the sale in early January.

My lawyer sent this:

I am writing because your clients have knowingly violated the material terms of the Settlement Agreement as they have not given one page of the mandated documents to Jenna and have not paid her one cent. Now, it appears that they are poised to sell the company for $1,000,000.

Please let me know today what your clients will do to remedy their serious breaches of the Agreement. I am concerned they are going to try to put the sale proceeds outside the jurisdiction of the United States judicial system, given their past actions.

My lawyer used “clients” to refer to your wife and Littleton Apothecary, LLC collectively.

Your wife’s lawyer replied:

Good morning counselor – apologies for missing your call yesterday afternoon. I have no information on this matter and have not been able to reach Ms. Nordhaus for several months, including by snail mail returned as undeliverable. To my knowledge, this office no longer represents her.

With no “attorney of record,” my lawyer addressed the same questions and concerns to your wife, who replied:

“I have not sold Littleton Apothecary. I’m not sure where you’ve heard that, but I remain 100% owner of LA. 

Please remind me of what mandated documents you are referring to.” 

My lawyer then suggested that your wife was feigning ignorance about her contractual obligation to provide quarterly documentation to me (as per the terms of our 9-month-old settlement agreement) and suggested your wife re-read the settlement agreement, aka “the contract,” to which your wife replied:

“I’m not trying to be difficult, but I don’t know what contract you are talking about. I don’t have any documentation regarding a sale because there hasn’t been a sale. I remain 100% owner of LA. 

I would happily provide any documentation you require if you’ll please let me know what specifically you are looking for.”

Frankly, Matthew, I wasn’t interested in paying my lawyer to play word games with your wife.

I’d know the shop was open when the shop (eventually) opened, and your wife knew she was on the hook to pay me 9.99% of gross sales. And you know, even if she never gave me one sheet of paper, not one document, there would be no way for her to avoid collecting and submitting the 3% excise tax to the town.

Whatever Littleton Apothecary handed over (as a pass-through—it wouldn’t cost her a dime) in excise tax times 3.3 would be what she promised—in writing, with legal advice and counsel, and filed with the court.

I’d wait, and spring was right around the corner.

Naive optimist that I am, I opted to think that your one son (the one saying your wife sold for $1,000,000.00) got it wrong and that your other son (the one saying your wife was going to be opening in the spring of 2022) got it right.

I was pretty sure I was right.

That is, until I talked to Chuck.

TTYS,

Jkb