Chapter 4 - The Locks Are Changed
By 4:00 PM that afternoon, the hospital had formally revoked Eric’s visiting privileges and cleared me for discharge under the direct care of my sister.
Clara’s black SUV sat in the hospital parking garage, guarded by two private security officers Clara had hired through her firm. I sat in the back seat, holding Sophie securely in her brand-new, safely installed rear-facing seat—not the leather one Lauren had bought, but a fresh one Clara had purchased on her way to the hospital.
"Where are we going?" I asked, staring out the tinted window as the city lights began to flicker on in the gathering gloom.
"We're going to your house," Clara said from the driver's seat, her eyes fixed on the rearview mirror. "Or rather, what used to be your house."
"Clara, he's probably there right now with Arthur Vance trying to destroy evidence," I said, panic flaring in my chest.
"He isn't," Clara replied with a dark, satisfied smile. "I had a temporary emergency restraining order signed by Judge Miller—the detective’s cousin—one hour ago based on the financial fraud evidence. Eric is legally barred from coming within five hundred yards of the house, you, or Sophie. If he steps foot on the driveway, he goes straight to county jail without bail."
When we pulled into the long, tree-lined driveway of our suburban home in Oak Park, a white locksmith van was already parked in front of the garage. Two locksmiths were actively replacing the deadbolts on the front door.
As I stepped out of the car, breathing in the cold air, my eyes caught something lying near the flowerbeds beside the front porch.
It was a box of baby supplies—a crib mobile, a set of organic cotton swaddles, and a framed sonogram photo. The frame was shattered, the glass glittering like broken ice on the dark mulch.
"Eric was here right before the injunction was served," one of the locksmiths told Clara as we walked up the steps. "He was tearing through the place like a lunatic trying to load boxes into a rental truck. We had the police escort him off the property twenty minutes ago."
I walked through the front door of my own home, feeling like an intruder.
The house was chaotic. Drawers in the hallway console were pulled out, papers strewn across the hardwood floor. In the living room, the safe behind the painting of the rolling hills was wide open and completely empty. Eric had cleaned out every paper document, every deed, every spare flash drive.
"He took the physical files," I said, leaning against the doorframe, exhaustion threatening to collapse my knees.
"Let him have the paper," Clara said, setting her laptop on the kitchen island. "Paper can be reprinted. But Eric made one fatal mistake when he set up Hayes Consulting."
"What's that?"
"He used his work email at Vance & Brooks to register the shell company's tax ID number," Clara said, tapping the keys of her laptop rapidly. "He thought because he was a junior partner, the firm's IT servers would shield his communications. But Arthur Vance isn't protecting Eric out of loyalty, Natalie. Arthur is protecting the firm from liability."
She turned the laptop screen toward me.
"I have an informant inside Vance & Brooks," Clara revealed softly. "A senior paralegal who has been passed over for partner three times because of Eric. She just sent me an internal memo that Arthur Vance issued twenty minutes ago."
I leaned over the island to read the text on the screen.
TO: All Partners and Department Heads
FROM: Managing Partner Arthur Vance
SUBJECT: Urgent Personnel Status - Eric Brooks & Lauren Hayes
Effective immediately, Partner Eric Brooks and Associate Lauren Hayes have been placed on unpaid administrative leave pending an internal investigation into potential misuse of client trust accounts and firm resources. Neither individual is permitted access to firm premises or digital networks.
"Arthur threw him under the bus," I whispered.
"Arthur is a shark," Clara corrected. "The moment Arthur realized Eric’s fraud involved stolen inheritance funds and fake medical affidavits that could bring a federal inquiry down on the firm, Eric ceased being an asset and became a biological hazard. Arthur is cutting him loose to save Vance & Brooks."
Suddenly, the landline phone on the kitchen wall began to ring. Its sharp, high-pitched ring echoed through the empty, messy house.
Clara and I exchanged a look.
I walked over, pressed the speakerphone button, but remained silent.
"Natalie?" Eric’s voice came through the speaker. He sounded unhinged, breathing heavily. "Natalie, I know you're there. Look at what you've done! You've ruined everything! Arthur suspended me! Lauren is being questioned by the state bar association!"
I let him speak, keeping my voice cold and calm. "You did this to yourself, Eric."
"I did it for us!" he yelled, his voice cracking with desperate rage. "That inheritance money was sitting in an account doing nothing! I was going to invest it in the firm's new real estate development fund! We were going to make millions! Lauren was just helping me structure the tax shelter!"
"And taking my daughter?" I asked, my grip tightening on the counter edge. "Was that part of your tax shelter too?"
There was a long silence on the other end of the line. When Eric spoke again, his voice was no longer pleading. It was sinister, low, and filled with venomous malice.
"You think you've won because Clara bought you a few days?" Eric sneered. "Check your email, Natalie. Check what was filed with the County Family Court at 4:00 PM today."
My stomach dropped. I looked at Clara, who immediately began typing on her laptop, logging into the county court portal.
"You might have blocked the hospital discharge," Eric whispered into the phone. "But tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM, Judge Harold Gaines is holding an emergency ex parte hearing. And Judge Gaines happens to be my former law professor and a long-time personal friend of Arthur Vance. By noon tomorrow, Sophie will be in temporary state foster care, and you will be ordered to undergo a mandatory thirty-day psychiatric evaluation."
The line went dead with a sharp click.
Clara gasped as a document popped up on her screen. "Oh God, Natalie... he actually did it. He filed an emergency petition for temporary wardship of the court, claiming both parents are currently under criminal investigation and unfit to care for a infant."
I looked over at the bassinet sitting in the corner of the living room, quiet and waiting.
May you like
They weren't just trying to take her anymore. Eric was willing to send our four-day-old baby into the state foster system just to strip me of leverage.
"He wants a war," I whispered, tears of terror turning into sheer, unadulterated fire. "Then he’s going to get one."
