Chapter 4 - The Frozen Empire
The next morning, Eleanor, Arthur, and Chloe were sitting in a cheap motel room on the edge of town. The police had given them exactly ten minutes to pack a single bag before forcibly escorting them off Maya’s estate.
Eleanor was furiously dialing her phone, her perfectly manicured nails tapping against the screen. "Julian's bail is set at a quarter of a million dollars," she snapped at her husband. "We need to wire the ten percent to the bondsman immediately."
Arthur opened his laptop, logging into their joint family accounts. For years, Julian had been funneling his massive corporate bonuses into a shared family trust that his parents and sister lived off of.
Arthur’s face suddenly turned the color of ash.
"What is it?" Chloe asked, filing her nails on the motel bed. "Just wire the money, Dad. This motel smells like bleach and desperation."
"I... I can't," Arthur stammered, frantically refreshing the banking page. "The accounts. They’re frozen."
"What do you mean frozen?" Eleanor shrieked, grabbing the laptop.
Across the screen, in stark red lettering, was a banking notification: ACCOUNT SUSPENDED. PENDING FEDERAL AUDIT AND ASSET SEIZURE INJUNCTION.
"Call Julian’s lawyer!" Eleanor demanded, absolute panic finally setting in.
Chloe dialed the high-priced defense attorney they kept on retainer. She put him on speakerphone.
"Mr. Sterling," Chloe said haughtily. "My brother is in jail, and there’s a glitch with the bank. Fix it."
"It’s not a glitch, Chloe," the lawyer’s exhausted voice came through the line. "Maya’s father, Richard, just filed a massive civil injunction. He provided the bank with evidence of financial coercion and domestic abuse. Because Julian commingled Maya's trust dividends with your family accounts, every single dime you have is legally frozen pending an investigation."
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"He can't do that!" Eleanor screamed into the phone.
"He already did," the lawyer replied coldly. "And by the way, my retainer hasn't cleared. Until it does, Julian sits in a cell. Good luck." The line went dead.
