Chapter 8 - The Asset Strip and Divorce Decree
At 1:30 PM that afternoon, the private executive conference suite of the Chancery Division of the Cook County Circuit Court was an arena of historic, financial execution.
Outside, the gray autumn clouds had broken, letting brilliant, pale golden sunlight wash over the soaring skyscrapers of downtown Chicago.
Inside the conference room, sitting around a thirty-foot mahogany table, were Arthur Sterling, Esq., Chief Forensic Auditor David Miller, and Chief Chancery Judge Katherine Harris.
Sitting in a high-backed leather armchair, dressed in an immaculate, custom-tailored navy-blue wool power suit, her bruised cheek skillfully concealed by light medical cosmetics, was Clara.
Beside Clara sat me, wearing my tailored charcoal suit, my arm resting gently behind my daughter’s shoulders.
On the table before Judge Harris rested a thick, blue leather-bound decree stamped with the golden seal of the State of Illinois:
THE SOVEREIGN DISSOLUTION OF MARRIAGE & TOTAL ASSET RESTRUCTURING
IN RE: CLARA STERLING-WARD V. DOMINIC ALEXANDER WARD
TOTAL LIQUID VALUATION: ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY MILLION DOLLARS ($140,000,000.00)
Judge Harris adjusted her reading glasses, looking across the table at Clara with deep, maternal respect:
"Clara, my dear, in thirty-five years on the state bench, I have rarely witnessed an asset liquidation as absolute and unassailable as the one prepared by your mother and the federal prosecution team."
Judge Harris picked up her gold fountain pen, turning to the executive decrees:
"Item One: Under the Illinois Marital Property Act and the Federal Civil Asset Forfeiture Covenants, Dominic Ward has been stripped of all legal, proprietary, and equitable interest in all domestic and commercial assets."
Judge Harris signed the primary execution line:
"Item Two: The sixty-story Ward Sovereign Tower on Wacker Drive, the Lake Forest residential estate, the private aviation hangar at Gary Airport, and sixty-eight million dollars in recovered offshore liquid capital are hereby transferred unconditionally to The Clara & Baby Sterling Sovereign Living Trust."
Judge Harris turned to custody:
"Item Three: Full Sole Legal and Physical Custody of the unborn minor child is awarded exclusively and permanently to Clara Sterling. Dominic Ward is stripped of all parental rights, with a permanent, lifetime order of protection prohibiting any contact, direct or indirect, through third parties."
CRACK.
Judge Harris pressed her official notary seal onto the blue vellum.
"The marriage between Clara Sterling and Dominic Ward is officially, permanently DISSOLVED," Judge Harris announced.
Clara looked down at the parchment bearing her maiden name:
Clara Elizabeth Sterling.
Tears—hot, beautiful, and miraculous tears—welled in her hazel eyes, spilling freely down her cheeks.
The two years of locked doors, bruises hidden beneath silk sleeves, and terror of an untouchable husband had been permanently, miraculously incinerated into the light.
She turned to me, throwing her arms around my neck, burying her face in my shoulder:
"Mom... we're free," Clara wept softly.
"We're really free."
I held my daughter tightly against my chest, feeling the solid, miraculous movement of my grandchild kicking against my side through her woolen jacket.
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"You were always free, Clara," I whispered, kissing her hair.
"Dominic just forgot whose blood was in your veins."
