Chapter 7 - The Grand Jury Subpoena
Monday morning arrived with the crisp, biting efficiency of a Chicago winter.
At 9:00 AM sharp, Zoe’s firm officially filed two separate legal actions in the Cook County Circuit Court and the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois:
A comprehensive petition for dissolution of marriage, requesting sole legal and physical custody of Lily, emergency protective orders prohibiting the Peterson family from coming within five hundred feet of us, and an unequal division of marital assets due to gross marital misconduct.
A formal civil joinder attaching the forensic audit findings to ongoing federal investigations into corporate fraud, resulting in immediate freezing orders on all personal and corporate assets linked to Frank, Arthur, and Mark Peterson.
By noon, the shockwaves had hit the Gold Coast brownstone like a meteor.
Zoe’s office received three frantic phone calls in twenty minutes from high-priced defense attorneys representing Frank Peterson, all desperately asking if we were open to a “confidential settlement discussion.”
Zoe put them on speakerphone while I sat across her desk, sipping tea.
“Mr. Henderson,” Zoe said into the receiver with a voice as sweet as poison syrup, “when your client’s daughter physically assaulted a five-year-old child on Thanksgiving, your family made it clear that you don’t negotiate with people you consider beneath you. Now that federal marshals are seizing corporate ledgers from your client’s office, suddenly you want to talk?”
“Ms. Miller, let’s be reasonable,” the defense attorney pleaded on the other end. “A federal indictment will destroy the family name forever. Name your terms. Financial settlement, property transfer, anything—”
“Here are my terms,” Zoe said, her voice turning like ice. “Full, unconditional surrender. Chloe gets sole custody of Lily, the Lincoln Park brownstone transferred entirely into her name free and clear of mortgages, a multi-million-dollar trust fund established for Lily’s education, and a public, written confession and apology from Megan and Carol published in the Chicago Tribune.”
There was a long, suffocating silence on the other end of the line.
“That’s... that’s completely unreasonable!” Henderson sputtered. “You’re asking for the total destruction of the Peterson estate!”
“Then I suggest you tell your clients to pack a toothbrush before the federal grand jury indicts them on Wednesday,” Zoe snapped, and hung up the phone without waiting for a reply.
May you like
She tossed her cell phone onto the desk and grinned at me.
“Well,” Zoe laughed. “That ought to ruin their Monday afternoon.”
