Chapter 7 - Frozen Accounts and the Paper Trail of Greed
“Do not engage physically,” Harrison instructed immediately over the intercom. “Keep the gates locked, record everything on high-definition night-vision cameras, and call the Greenwich Police Department. Report an intoxicated, armed suspect attempting a violent home invasion.”
I walked over to the security monitors on the wall. The live feed showed Derek’s luxury sedan smashed against the reinforced wrought-iron gates. He was outside the car, kicking the iron bars, his tuxedo torn, his hair disheveled, screaming profanities into the night air.
Within four minutes, three Greenwich police cruisers pulled up behind Derek’s car with their lights flashing.
Derek, in his drunken arrogance, tried to push a police officer who ordered him to step away from the gate. Within seconds, two officers tackled him onto the asphalt, cuffed his hands behind his back, and shoved him into the back of a cruiser.
“That’s one night in holding for domestic disturbance, resisting arrest, and DUI,” Marcus reported through the radio. “He won't be seeing a judge until morning.”
“Good,” Harrison said, opening his laptop. “That gives us five uninterrupted hours to execute the asset freezes.”
By 5:00 AM, Harrison’s team had filed emergency ex-parte motions in Manhattan Supreme Court. By utilizing the evidence of wire fraud uncovered from Derek’s townhouse, the judge signed an immediate restraining order on all bank accounts, credit lines, and corporate holdings associated with Derek Sterling and D&V Holdings Ltd.
Every single credit card in Derek’s wallet was deactivated. His luxury apartment lease was terminated under the landlord’s criminal activity clause. The company cars were scheduled for immediate repossession.
As the sun began to rise over Long Island Sound, painting the sky in shades of gold and pink, Lena handed me a tablet.
“Look at Twitter and TikTok,” she said.
A guest at the wedding had captured the entire incident—from the cake smash to my black-jumpsuit reveal and the presentation of the offshore fraud—and uploaded it online. The hashtag #CakeSmashRevenge was currently the number-one trending topic in the United States, with over twenty million views.
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The public reaction was overwhelmingly supportive. People were praising the swift, calculated dismantling of an abusive partner. Derek’s reputation as an up-and-coming tech entrepreneur was thoroughly destroyed overnight.
He was no longer a golden boy. He was a national laughingstock and a suspected felon.
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