Chapter 3 - The Freezing OrdersThe next morning, the legal earthquake struck before the Ross family had even finished their first cup of morning coffee.
I had spent the night in an upscale downtown hotel suite, my phone turned off to block Daniel’s hundreds of hysterical, threatening, and eventually pleading text messages. When I powered the phone back on at 8:00 AM, my notification log exploded.
Daniel: Sarah, please pick up. Mom is having a panic attack. We need to talk.
Daniel: The police came to the house this morning! They served me with an emergency protection order and a criminal summons for domestic assault! What did you do?!
Linda: Sarah, darling, please call me. We can work out the house deed however you want. Just drop the charges!
I ignored every single message, forwarding them directly to Victoria’s legal archives.
At 9:30 AM, Victoria’s office executed the financial strikes. Because my name was legally tied to Linda’s property deed and because my pre-marital funds had been co-mingled under fraudulent pretenses during our marriage, Victoria secured an emergency civil asset freeze across all joint accounts, business lines of credit associated with Ryan’s proposed sports bar, and Linda’s personal savings accounts.
By noon, the bank fraud division of the state police had descended upon Ryan’s bogus “investment” office. They discovered that Ryan had not only been taking out fraudulent loans using his late father’s forged signature, but he had also been laundering small amounts of cash through Linda’s home equity line of credit to pay off local loan sharks.
I sat in Victoria’s office watching the live updates stream across our legal monitoring dashboard, sipping a cup of black coffee.
“The net is closing in fast,” Victoria noted, tapping her pen against her desk. “Ryan is currently being interrogated down at the precinct. His lawyer is already trying to cut a deal, attempting to pin the forged mortgage documents entirely on his mother to save his own skin.”
“Typical Ryan,” I remarked dryly. “Always willing to throw everyone else under the bus as long as he gets to keep his lifestyle.”
“And what about Daniel?” Victoria asked, raising an eyebrow. “He’s facing a mandatory arrest warrant for domestic battery, plus accessory charges to mail and bank fraud because his name was listed as a secondary guarantor on Ryan’s shell corporation.”
“Let him face it,” I said without a trace of hesitation. “He made his choice when he watched his mother abuse me and decided to punch me in the mouth. Let him explain to a federal judge why he thought he was above the law.”
Just as Victoria opened her mouth to reply, her intercom chimed.
“Ms. Vance,” her assistant’s voice crackled through the speaker. “You have a visitor in the lobby. It’s Linda Ross. She’s... well, she’s demanding to speak with Sarah immediately, and she looks like she’s about to collapse.”
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Victoria looked across the desk at me, a sharp smile touching her lips. “Shall we invite the queen mother into our courtroom?”
“Send her up,” I said quietly. “Let’s see how she handles numbers when they aren’t in her favor.”
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