Chapter 7 - The Final NoticeDaniel dropped the letter as if it were burning his skin. He stumbled backward out of the bedroom, rushing back down the hallway toward the front door.
"Open up! Police department! We have an eviction and asset seizure order!"
Daniel yanked the door open. Standing on the porch were two uniformed Fairview police officers, flanked by a stern-looking man in a sharp charcoal suit holding a thick leather briefcase.
"Daniel Mercer?" the man in the suit asked, flashing an official badge.
"I live here!" Daniel shouted, his voice cracking with hysteria. "This is my house! My lease! What is the meaning of this?"
"Your lease was terminated sixty minutes ago by the property holding corporation—Vance Global Holdings," the process server replied smoothly, handing Daniel a stack of official court documents. "Furthermore, federal warrants for corporate financial discrepancies have been flagged by your former business partners. You are required to vacate the premises immediately."
"Vacate? To where? It's freezing outside! It's ten o'clock at night!" Daniel cried out, his composure completely shattering as he realized the officers were stepping past him into the empty hallway.
"That is no longer our concern, Mr. Mercer," one of the officers said, resting a hand calmly on his utility belt. "You have ten minutes to collect your personal items from the garage. Anything left inside the main house remains property of the holding entity."
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Daniel stood frozen on the threshold of the empty house, the cold Ohio wind whipping through his hair. For the first time in his thirty-four years of life, he had absolute zero control over his circumstances.
His parents wouldn't answer his frantic phone calls. His sister had blocked his number. And his wife—the woman he had publicly mocked and degraded just hours earlier—had systematically dismantled his entire existence with the stroke of a pen.
