Chapter 7 - The Counter-Strike
“What do you mean?” I asked, leaning forward over the desk.
Marcus tapped the notary stamp on page four of the quitclaim deed. “Ethan used a mobile notary service operating out of DuPage County—a firm called SwiftSeal Notary. The notary public who stamped this document, a man named Harold Higgins, surrendered his state licensing credentials six months ago following an investigation into document falsification. Furthermore, because this property was originally purchased in 2021 using funds explicitly traceable to your maternal grandmother’s testamentary trust, your name was protected under a mandatory marital asset survivorship clause that cannot be dissolved without a signed, witnessed probate court waiver.”
He leaned back in his leather chair, steeple-fingering his hands together.
“In plain English, Claire? The quitclaim deed your husband signed is legally null and void. It is nothing more than expensive toilet paper. And the moment we file an emergency injunction for corporate embezzlement, fraudulent conveyance, and emergency custody restructuring with Judge Althaus this morning, Ethan and his mother are going to find themselves facing not only civil ruin, but potential criminal indictment.”
A cold, victorious thrill washed over me for the first time in twenty-four hours.
“Can we lock them out of the house?” I asked.
“Lock them out?” Marcus chuckled darkly. “My dear, by this afternoon, Judge Althaus is going to issue an emergency asset freeze across all of Ethan’s corporate holdings, lock his partnership accounts at the firm, and slap a mandatory restraining order prohibiting Diane from coming within five hundred yards of you or your daughter. By dinner time, your husband won't even be able to buy a cup of coffee without our firm’s explicit written approval.”
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“Let’s do it,” I said without a single second of hesitation.
Marcus reached for his desk phone, punched a two-digit extension, and barked at his senior associate: “Cancel my morning appointments, get Judge Althaus on line two, and summon our lead forensic accountant into my office immediately. We have a hostile takeover to execute.”
