Chapter 5 - Freezing the Joint Accounts and Colin’s False Confidence
Before Dana served the formal eviction and financial demand, we executed a preemptive financial strike.
Under standard Texas family law, spouses often assume that joint bank accounts are a free-for-all during separation. But Colin had made a catastrophic error: he had deposited fifteen thousand dollars of his own corporate design bonuses into our joint account two days before filing for divorce, attempting to disguise the funds while he opened a separate personal account at Chase Bank.
Because of the punitive clauses in Article Fourteen and the formal filing of my domestic assault complaint, Dana secured an emergency ex-parte freezing order from Judge Harold Vance in the Dallas County Probate Court.
At 09:00 Tuesday morning, Colin was standing in the drive-thru lane of a luxury car dealership in Plano, attempting to put a ten-thousand-dollar debit deposit on a new Porsche Cayenne.
The finance manager stepped out to his window, looking distinctly uncomfortable.
"Mr. Mercer, your transaction was declined."
Colin frowned, taking off his designer sunglasses. "Run it again. There's over eighty thousand dollars in that operating account."
"Sir, I ran it three times," the manager replied. "The terminal returns code 72—Legal Injunction / Court-Ordered Asset Restraint. All accounts associated with your Social Security number have been frozen by order of the Probate Court."
Colin's heart did a violent double-thud against his ribs.
He pulled out his phone and frantically dialed his divorce attorney, Marcus Vance.
"Marcus! What the hell is going on? My cards are declining!"
"Colin, get to my office right now," Marcus said, his voice unusually strained and breathless. "Dana Reeves just served us with an eighty-page emergency filing. She isn't playing family court, Colin. She's executing a commercial trust foreclosure."
"A trust foreclosure?!" Colin shouted, his voice squeaking as other customers turned to stare. "That's my wife's family house! It's marital property!"
"It was never marital property," Marcus groaned over the line. "The deed was never in Rachel's personal name. It has always belonged to the Thorne Sovereign Trust. And Colin... they have video."
"Video of what?"
May you like
"Video of your mother pushing Rachel into a support beam in the basement. And video of you standing over your bleeding wife telling her she should have obeyed your mother."
Colin dropped his phone onto the leather passenger seat, the world spinning in nauseating circles around him.
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