Chapter 15 - The Legal Hammer
Before Grant could take another step toward Denise, the office door opened behind him.
Martin Vance walked in, accompanied by a process server wearing a gray suit.
Martin didn't smile. He looked at Grant with the cold disgust a man reserves for a cockroach.
“Grant Sterling,” Martin said, his deep baritone cutting through the room like a broadsword. “Serve him, Richard.”
The process server stepped forward and slapped a thick sheaf of legal documents against Grant’s chest. Grant caught them instinctively.
“What is this?” Grant stammered, looking down at the legal seals.
“That is an emergency temporary restraining order prohibiting you and your wife from coming within five hundred yards of your mother, her financial assets, or any property owned by her trusts,” Martin stated with lethal precision.
“You can’t do this, Martin! I am her son! I hold her Power of Attorney!”
“You held a revocable proxy, Grant,” Martin sneered. “Which was formally revoked by Evelyn eight days ago and filed with the probate court. Furthermore, that packet contains a notice of legal demand from my firm representing the Arthur Sterling Revocable Trust.”
Grant’s eyes widened. “What trust?”
“The trust your father established before his death,” Martin explained, stepping uncomfortably close to Grant. “The trust that holds over one point four million dollars in municipal bonds, equities, and liquid reserves. Arthur left strict stipulations: in the event that his surviving spouse experienced financial abuse, physical assault, or attempted coercion by any beneficiary, said beneficiary would be immediately, permanently, and irrevocably disinherited.”
Grant felt the floor dropping away beneath his feet.
*One point four million dollars.*
His mother wasn't scraping by on a pension. She was wealthy. She had always been wealthy. And if he had simply loved her, respected her, and treated her with basic human decency, that wealth would have protected his family for generations.
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“And Grant?” Martin added, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper. “We know about the Thanksgiving dinner. We have the medical records of the contusions on Evelyn’s chest from that porcelain platter. If you contest this restraining order by so much as a single millimeter, I will personally file criminal charges for elder abuse and battery. Now get out of my sight.”
***
