Chapter 4 - The Golden Credit Cards Freeze
The morning sun over Dublin, Ohio, was bright, crisp, and utterly merciless.
Julian Vance stood inside the marble-tiled lobby of the high-end European bakery on High Street, tapping his platinum American Express card against the glass counter for the third time while the barista stared at him blankly.
"Sir, your card was declined again," the barista said, her voice dripping with polite annoyance as the morning rush-hour queue began to stack up behind him. "Do you have another form of payment?"
"Declined?" Julian scoffed, his face flushing a bright, embarrassing shade of crimson. "That’s impossible. Check the machine again. Put it through as manual entry! I have an unlimited spending tier!"
"I tried three times, sir. The error code says Account Frozen by Issuer / Fraud Prevention Hold," the barista replied flatly, sliding the card back across the counter. "Next in line, please."
Humiliated, Julian snatched the card off the counter and shoved it into his suit pocket, marching out of the bakery into the brisk morning air. His phone immediately buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out, expecting a fraud alert he could clear with a quick phone call.
Instead, it was a push notification from his banking app: CRITICAL ALERT: All associated accounts, revolving credit lines, and investment portfolios held under Julian Vance and Cumberland Holdings LLC have been frozen pursuant to a statewide judicial asset freeze order (Case No. 2026-CV-8841).
Julian stopped dead on the sidewalk, nearly getting clipped by a passing delivery cyclist.
"What the hell is this?" he muttered, his fingers trembling as he tapped frantically on the screen, trying to log into his primary checking account. Access Denied. Account locked by order of the Office of the Attorney General.
Panic, cold and sharp, flooded his chest. He dialed Chloe’s cell phone number on speed dial.
It rang three times before she answered, her voice shrill and panicked. "Julian! Thank God! What is happening? I’m standing at the register at Saks Fifth Avenue trying to pick up the designer bags we ordered for the charity luncheon, and my card just got declined! The manager is looking at me like I’m a criminal!"
"Mine too," Julian said, his voice dropping into a breathless panic. "My bank accounts... they’re frozen. All of them. By the Attorney General’s office."
"The Attorney General's office?" Chloe shrieked so loudly that people walking past her in the department store turned to stare. "How is that possible? Your sister is just a state prosecutor! She doesn't have the power to freeze corporate accounts!"
"She’s an Assistant Attorney General, Chloe! In the Special Prosecutions Division!" Julian roared back, his facade finally shattering completely as he paced frantically in front of a coffee shop. "She has state troopers, forensic auditors, and judges on speed dial! She didn't just call the cops last night—she executed a full-scale state intervention!"
"Well, call our corporate lawyer!" Chloe demanded, her voice cracking with hysteria. "Call Arthur! Tell him to get a judge to reverse this immediately! We have mortgage payments due! We have luxury lease payments on the Volvo! We can't survive twenty-four hours without cash flow!"
Julian pulled up his contacts list, his thumb hovering over his attorney’s name. But before he could press call, his phone vibrated with a calendar alert and an email notification.
The subject line of the email read: SUBPOENA DUCES TECUM / NOTICE OF DEPOSITION.
Julian opened the email with a shaking hand. It was a formal state subpoena commanding Julian Vance and Chloe Vance to appear before the Franklin County Grand Jury within seventy-two hours to answer for forty-seven counts of financial elder abuse, grand theft, forgery, and unlawful imprisonment.
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Attached to the bottom of the email was a single PDF containing a photograph of the arrest warrants already signed by Judge Thorne.
Julian stared at the screen, the phone nearly slipping from his sweaty fingers. The walls were closing in, and there were no more loopholes, no more forged signatures, and no more hiding behind closed doors.
