Chapter 5 - THE LEGAL WAR BEGINS
On Friday morning, Adrian’s estate felt like a command bunker.
While Lily and Mia spent the morning with a specialized child trauma therapist named Dr. Aris, Adrian was locked in his study with Victoria Chase, the most feared family law attorney on the East Coast.
Victoria sat across from Adrian, reviewing a thick stack of court summonses. She was a sharp woman in her fifties with silver hair, piercing blue eyes, and a reputation for destroying corrupt opponents in courtrooms.
"Victor Vance’s lawyers are playing a very dirty, very clever game," Victoria explained, pointing to a signature at the bottom of a document. "This is a debt transfer contract signed by James Sterling—the girls' late father—six weeks before he died. It stipulates that in the event of his death, guardianship of his minor children transfers to Vance’s corporate entity as security for a two-hundred-thousand-dollar debt."
"That's modern-day slavery!" Adrian said, furious. "You can't contractually sell your children to pay off a gambling debt in the United States!"
"Of course you can't—it's completely illegal and unconstitutional," Victoria agreed calmly. "However, Vance's legal team isn't trying to win a permanent adoption. They are using this fraudulent contract to create a legal gray area. They are claiming that until a court determines the validity of the debt, the children must be placed in a neutral state-appointed foster home—a home where Vance’s corrupt contacts can easily snatched them."
"We have to stop that hearing on Monday," Adrian said.
"To stop it, we need hard evidence that James Sterling signed that document under duress, or that the signature was forged," Victoria said. "Without that, the judge will be forced to follow standard temporary guardianship procedure and remove the kids from your house."
While the legal battle raged in the office, Adrian took a break at noon to check on the girls.
He found them in the sunroom with Dr. Aris. For the first time, Lily and Mia were playing with art supplies. Mia was carefully coloring a picture of a large, sunny house with green trees. Lily, however, was drawing something vastly different.
Adrian walked over quietly and looked at Lily’s paper. She had drawn two small black figures standing inside a big red cage, surrounded by tall men with no faces.
"That was the stash house, wasn't it?" Adrian asked gently, sitting beside her on the small wooden bench.
Lily didn't look up from her drawing. "They kept four other kids there," she whispered softly. "Older boys. They took them away two weeks ago. We never saw them again. That's why we ran."
Adrian felt a cold shiver run down his spine. "Other kids?"
"They made us work at different places every day," Lily continued, her hand pressing hard on the black crayon. "The brick place. A car wash downtown. A meat packing warehouse. If we didn't bring back the white envelopes with money, Mr. Vance’s men wouldn't give us water."
Adrian immediately called Marcus into the room. "Lily, can you remember where that meat packing warehouse was?"
Lily nodded slowly. "It smelled like old ice and iron. Near the train tracks with the big blue water tower."
Marcus’s eyes widened. "The Old Bay Industrial District near the port. That's Vance’s primary distribution hub."
"Get the FBI on the line right now," Adrian ordered Marcus. "If there are other children trapped in that network, we aren't waiting until Monday's court hearing."
Suddenly, the estate’s perimeter alarms burst into a high-pitched siren sound. Red emergency lights flashed across the ceilings of the house.
“Warning: Perimeter breach on the West Wall,” the automated security voice announced over the loudspeakers.
Marcus pulled a concealed firearm from his holster instantly. "Mr. Cole, get the girls into the panic room down in the basement! Now!"
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Outside, three heavy black pickup trucks crashed directly through the estate’s wrought-iron front gates, smashing the heavy metal off its hinges. Armed men in tactical vests poured out into the driveway.
Victor Vance wasn't waiting for Monday's court hearing either. He had decided to take his witnesses back by force.
