Ms. Okafor placed the blue notebook beside the mortgage records, business lease, bank statements, and nursing-home payments. Curtis tried to explain that “Pay her back first” had only meant I had helped temporarily, but the documents told a much larger story. My $12,600 settlement had helped launch Vance Auto Parts, my credit secured the original lease, and years of household payments allowed Curtis to keep reinvesting business income instead of using it for our family expenses. Even the unpaid bookkeeping and administrative work I performed became relevant once the court examined how the business had actually operated during our marriage.
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