Free 04.Die.My.Love.2007 by Kathryn Casey Page B

that during the three years Piper had overseen the family fi -
    nances, she’d racked up $32,000 in credit card debt. Fred was furious, and worried. “It’s just more proof of Piper’s instability,” he told one friend. “I can’t believe she’s doing these things.”
    A careful man, Fred
    couldn’t tolerate owing so much
    money. After coming to grips with the initial shock, he transferred all the debt onto his own credit cards. His plan was to take charge of the family finances and to begin paying the debt off. To ensure that it didn’t happen again, he took away Piper’s credit cards, leaving her with only one that carried a $500 maximum. Finally, he announced an end to his wife’s way of life. No longer would Piper be free to spend her days as she pleased, playing tennis while he worked and others cared for the children and the house.
    Fred told Piper that he expected her to work, to help pay off the bills.
    It wasn’t just lip service. Fred took action.
    Determined that she’d find a position, he networked and quickly found a retiring Richmond attorney who needed someone to take over his practice. There was a problem, however: Piper had never been licensed to work as an attorney in Virginia. When she’d first arrived, she could have petitioned the state bar for reciprocity, basically asking Virginia to grant her a license based on her Texas license and experience. But she never applied, and that grace period lapsed. Unlicensed, Piper could legally work only under another lawyer’s supervision. When she told Mel about the work she’d taken on, however, it sounded as if—Virginia law license or not—Piper was 60 / Kathryn Casey
    doing her own work. As usual, she wasn’t letting details—this time even breaking the law—get in the way of what she wanted.
    In early August, Piper didn’t seem particularly worried.
    She told Dr. Welton that the summer had been a good one, and she seemed excited about working again. “She’s struggling and trying to define some goals for herself,” he wrote.
    The idea of setting long-term goals frightened her, Welton suggested, surmising that the central issue could be her reluctance to take the next step, to come to terms with the need for her to take her law boards to gain licensing.
    In late September, Fred was back in the classroom teaching at UR, and the old Piper returned, a woman easily overwhelmed and sullen. She complained to Welton that four-year-old Callie didn’t like her day care and was acting up, and that Fred wasn’t devoting the time to her and the children that he had over his summer vacation. Piper referred to it as Fred
    “avoiding his responsibilities” at home.
    “Very angry with husband and feels hopeless that he will take responsibility,” Weldon wrote on her chart.
    That fall, she continued to practice law, but after a client complained, the Virginia State Bar sent Piper a letter, questioning her lack of a license. Piper responded by fi ling a formal application for reciprocity, claiming she was still within the grace period because she’d continued to work for Texas clients while living in Virginia. The clients Piper listed were her family members, including Tina and her clinic. To bolster her claim, Piper asked Mel to sign a form stating that she was aware of Piper’s continued legal career.
    “But I don’t have any knowledge of your doing any legal work since you moved to Virginia,” Melody told her.
    “It’s only a formality,” Piper assured her, giving her the form on which she’d already written what she wanted Mel to say.
    After Piper left, Mel took the form and wrote across it: “I DIE, MY LOVE / 61
    was given this but I have no knowledge of what’s stated here.” She then signed and mailed it. Weeks later, when Piper tried to put an ad offering her services as an attorney in the Kingsley directory, Mel called the neighborhood association president and told her that Piper wasn’t licensed.
    They didn’t run the