Chapter 6 - The Freezing of Assets
By November, the legal machine had ground the Miller family’s luxury lifestyle into dust. The country club had quietly suspended Robert’s membership due to the high-profile nature of the felony indictments. Without the $1,200 monthly allowance I provided, and with the sudden surge in legal retainers, my parents' finances began to implode.
On a cold Tuesday morning, I received a frantic call from an old family friend, Arthur Pendelton, who served as the manager of the local community bank where my parents held their primary mortgage.
"Catherine, I’m calling you as a courtesy because your name is still listed as the secondary emergency contact on the estate profile," Arthur said, his voice hushed. "Your father’s accounts are overdrawn by eleven thousand dollars. The retainer check they wrote to Gregory Ross’s law firm bounced yesterday, and the bank is initiating a pre-foreclosure review on the Great Falls property."
"Let it go through, Arthur," I said, staring out my office window at the gray November sky.
"Catherine... are you sure? That house has been in your family for twenty years. If it goes into default, your parents will lose everything."
"They lost everything the moment they closed the door of that van, Arthur. Thank you for the call, but please remove my name from that profile permanently."
Ten minutes after I hung up, a text message came through from my mother’s new prepaid number. It was the first direct communication she had attempted since the night I kicked her out.
Catherine. The bank is threatening our home. Your father’s heart cannot take this stress. You have achieved everything you have because of us. If you have any decency left, you will call Arthur and settle the deficit. We can settle the court matter privately. Don't be a monster.
I stared at the word monster.
For years, that word would have sent me into a spiral of guilt and panic. I would have called the bank, transferred the money, and apologized for causing them stress. But that day, I didn't feel a single spark of emotion.
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I copied the text message and forwarded it directly to the state prosecutor’s digital evidence portal under the category Witness Intimidation and Violation of the Active Restraining Order.
Within two hours, two sheriff's deputies arrived at my parents' house in Great Falls. Robert was escorted out in handcuffs for violating the terms of his pre-trial release by allowing his wife to contact the victim's household. He spent the night in a county jail cell, sleeping on a stainless-steel bunk, while my mother sat alone in a freezing house with the heat turned down to save money.
