Chapter 5 - The Reckoning at Court
Room 304 of the Sauk County Courthouse in Baraboo was small, wood-paneled, and suffocatingly hot from the hissing cast-iron radiators.
Judge Robert Holbrook sat on the elevated bench, his thick white eyebrows pulled down in a formidable scowl as he reviewed the mountain of paperwork that had been dumped onto his docket in less than forty-eight hours.
To my right sat Harrison Miller, looking sharp and lethal in an ancient three-piece tweed suit, flanked by Vance Sterling, Midland Industrial’s ruthless senior corporate counsel.
To my left, sitting at the defense table, was Evelyn.
She was no longer wearing the shearling coat. She wore a modest, drab navy suit that made her look like a fragile, grieving widow. Beside her was Natalie, her eyes red-rimmed and swollen, clutching a designer handkerchief, and Gerald Krum, whose sweaty collar was visibly wilted against his neck.
Julian Vance-Montgomery was not there. His family had formally withdrawn their presence from the Hayes family forty-eight hours prior, accompanied by a public retraction of the engagement announcement in the *Chicago Tribune*.
"Mr. Krum," Judge Holbrook began, his voice echoing off the oak panels with ominous weight. "I have read your emergency motion to vacate the lis pendens on Hayes Family Holdings. I have also read the seventy-two-page cross-motion and preliminary injunction submitted by Mr. Miller and Mr. Sterling."
Gerald cleared his throat, standing on shaky legs. "Your Honor... this is a tragic, tragic family dispute. A rebellious, estranged daughter attempting to seize the ancestral assets of her aging mother—"
"Shut up, Gerald," Judge Holbrook said, not looking up from his papers.
Gerald sat down as if he had been shot.
Judge Holbrook looked over his spectacles at Evelyn. "Mrs. Hayes, did you or did you not execute a Power of Attorney on behalf of Arthur Hayes on May 12th, 2017?"
"I did, Your Honor," Evelyn said, her voice small, tremulous, and pathetic. "My poor Arthur... he was failing. He wanted me to ensure the girls were provided for. I have done nothing but sacrifice for my children—"
"Then perhaps you can explain this," Judge Holbrook interrupted.
He held up a glossy 11x17 high-resolution photograph.
It was a magnified comparison of Arthur Hayes’s signature on his 2016 Will compared to the signature on the 2017 Power of Attorney.
"The state forensic document examiner," Judge Holbrook said, "has concluded that the signature on the 2017 document is an overt tracing. In fact, they found the identical stroke-lift marks from a signature your late husband made on an agricultural loan application in 2004."
Evelyn’s breath hitched. She reached for Natalie’s hand, but Natalie, looking terrified, pulled her fingers away.
"Furthermore," the judge continued, his voice rising in righteous anger, "I have here a certified deposition from the records administrator at St. Clare Hospital. On May 12th, 2017, Arthur Hayes was in a medically induced coma under heavy fentanyl administration. He was incapable of holding a pen, let alone executing an irrevocable instrument."
"Your Honor—" Gerald squeaked.
"Mr. Krum, if you speak again without my permission, I will have the bailiff place you in holding for contempt," Judge Holbrook barked.
He turned his gaze onto Natalie.
"Miss Hayes. Between October of 2019 and December of 2021, you received three distributions totaling one hundred and forty-two thousand dollars from an account bearing the Employer Identification Number of Midland Industrial Parts. Do you know where that money came from?"
Natalie began to sob openly into her handkerchief. "I didn't know! Mom told me it was Dad’s insurance money! She told me it was my inheritance!"
"You knew," I spoke up, rising from my chair.
Harrison did not stop me. Vance Sterling did not stop me.
I stood in the center of the courtroom, my hands steady at my sides, my voice clear and ringing.
"You knew, Natalie, because in August of 2020, you texted me from an apartment in Paris, asking why the monthly allowance hadn't posted to your account, and when I told you I had no idea what you were talking about, you laughed and told me to 'ask Mom for my cut.' You knew every single dollar was being drained out of my father’s legacy. You knew that while my son was wearing second-hand coats and I was putting twenty dollars of gas at a time into my car, you were drinking three-hundred-dollar bottles of wine on my father's sweat."
"Claire..." Evelyn whimpered, looking at me with wide, pleading eyes that were finally, completely devoid of power. "You’re my child. You’re my flesh and blood. You wouldn't put your own mother in prison..."
"You came to my house at six o'clock in the morning," I said, looking down at her from the center aisle. "You brought two men to terrify my children. You stood on my porch and told me you were going to take the roof from over my head because I wouldn't hand you sixty-two hundred dollars so you could keep lying to the world."
I looked back up at the bench.
"Your Honor," I said. "As the legal trustee of the Arthur Hayes Spendthrift Trust, under the validly executed instrument of September 2016, I move for the immediate dissolution of Hayes Family Holdings, LLC. I move for a full judicial receivership over all real property in Sauk County. And I request that the evidence of corporate identity theft and forgery be referred immediately to the Office of the Wisconsin Attorney General for criminal prosecution."
Judge Holbrook looked at Evelyn. Then he looked at Natalie.
There was no pity in his face. There was only the absolute, cold finality of the law.
He brought the heavy wooden gavel down.
The sound cracked through Room 304 like thunder.
"Motions granted," Judge Holbrook ruled. "The deed of cross-collateralization against Claire Turner’s residential property is hereby declared null, void, and fraudulent *ab initio*. A warrant of attachment is issued for all domestic accounts belonging to Evelyn Hayes and Hayes Family Holdings. Gerald Krum, you will surrender your bar card to the clerk before you leave this building. And Mrs. Hayes... I suggest you retain a very good criminal defense attorney. You are going to need one."
May you like
The gavel struck again.
***
