Chapter 6 - The Midnight Call
The phone rang twice before a gravelly, exhausted voice answered on the other end.
“Vance.”
“Mr. Vance, my name is Laura Bennett. I’m Mark Bennett’s wife.”
Silence stretched across the line for a long, heavy second. Then I heard the rustle of papers shifting, followed by the scrape of a chair leg against hardwood.
“Mrs. Bennett. I’ve been trying to reach your husband’s estate office for three days. Richard’s legal team has already filed a provisional probate freeze claiming Mark died intestate regarding corporate assets.” Vance’s voice turned sharp, professional, and entirely alert. “Where are you?”
“I’m at my sister’s house. Richard and Evelyn locked us out of our home this afternoon, right after the funeral,” I said, keeping my tone steady. “They threatened Child Services if I stayed on the property.”
A sharp intake of breath hissed through the speaker. “Those bastards. Richard always played dirty, but locking a grieving mother and children out on the day of the burial crosses every line.”
“Mark left me his personal briefcase,” I continued, opening the top corporate ledger on Clara’s table. “Inside is the unfiled codicil, notarized by Miller in the neighboring county three weeks ago, along with five years of shadow accounting records detailing offshore asset transfers.”
Vance let out a low whistle. “The shadow ledger? Mark actually found it? He suspected Richard was draining the secondary holdings to build a shell company in the Caymans, but we never had the signed transactional proofs.”
“We have them now,” I said. “Every wire transfer receipt, every proxy signature mismatch, and the codicil transferring full independent control of our estate and my children’s trust. How fast can we file this?”
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“At 8:30 AM tomorrow morning, Judge Sterling opens chambers,” Vance said firmly. “Meet me outside the county courthouse at eight sharp. Bring the original documents, the key, and Mark’s letter. We aren't just going to contest the probate freeze, Mrs. Bennett. We’re going to hit them with an emergency asset injunction before Richard even wakes up.”
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