Chapter 4: The Midnight Audit and the Eviction Notice
At 2:00 a.m., my phone buzzed violently with an incoming call from Daniel, his composure completely shattered. I answered on the third ring, letting the silence on my end amplify his panic. "Claire! What did you do to my cards? I tried to buy coffee and the system locked me out of all our accounts! My corporate payroll deposit hasn't even hit the joint checking!" he ranted, his voice echoing in the hallway outside the ER. "Your corporate payroll, Daniel, was deposited into an account you no longer control," I replied calmly, my voice steady as stone. "Furthermore, my legal team filed an emergency property injunction three hours ago. The Northern District townhouse where you’ve been housing Mia and Leo? The lease is in my maiden name, funded by my trust. The eviction notice was served to her at midnight." A strangled gasp escaped his lips. "You... you evicted them? In the middle of the night? Where are they supposed to go?!" "That," I answered coldly, "is a conversation you can have with your mistress once security finishes packing your own designer suits into black trash bags and drops them in the hospital parking lot." I hung up the phone before he could scream another word, blocking his number permanently and routing all future communications directly through Arthur Sterling’s office.
