Chapter 161 Court Order
MELISSA'S POV
I let out a small sigh, knowing fully well what I had to do next.
Now, I didn’t like the idea of what I was about to do. In fact, a part of me kept whispering in my ears that I should just leave James and let him sort himself out at the station. If I really thought about it, this could even be an opportunity. With him out of the house for a while, I would finally have some peace and quiet without his constant presence around.
But I couldn’t do that.
Like I said, I didn’t like the idea, but I still had to go see him and get him out of there. At the very least, I needed to find out what the hell all these accusations were about and if any of them were actually true. Thankfully, it wasn’t that late in the evening yet. There was still enough time for me to go to the station and talk to someone who could explain everything properly.
My mind was still spinning as I hurried toward the house entrance, my heels clicking against the ground faster than usual. Everything felt messy all of a sudden. Just a few minutes ago, I had been sitting comfortably in the car, thinking about how our plan had worked perfectly. Now I was standing here dealing with police officers and legal papers.
Before I could step inside the house, an officer suddenly moved in front of me and raised his hand, blocking my path.
I raised a brow immediately. From the look on my face alone, I was sure he could already tell that I wasn’t in the mood for any kind of nonsense. I didn’t care if he was an officer or not.
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” the officer said calmly, “but you can no longer step foot inside this apartment.”
For a second, I just stared at him.
Then a small laugh escaped my mouth, a laugh I honestly couldn’t control. Because all of this had to be some kind of joke, right?
It had to be.
Because what exactly did he mean by I wasn’t allowed to enter my own apartment anymore?
“What do you mean by that?” I asked, my voice slowly losing patience.
Instead of answering immediately, the officer reached into a folder he was holding and brought out a set of documents. He handed them over to me without another word.
I grabbed the papers from his hand, my eyes quickly scanning through the contents.
At first, I didn’t fully understand what I was reading.
Then the words began to sink in.
This was a legal court order.
My eyes slowed as I continued reading, my heart beating slightly faster.
The document clearly stated that I was not allowed access to any property or item that had been bought or purchased using money that belonged to Mr. James Reed… money that had now been identified as stolen.
Stolen?
My fingers tightened around the paper without me realizing it.
How was that even possible?
The fraud the officer had mentioned earlier — were they actually telling the truth?
So many questions started running through my mind at once that it almost felt overwhelming. My eyes widened slightly as I looked down at the document again, trying to process everything.
“What does this mean?” I asked slowly.
The words barely made it out of my mouth, my gaze still fixed on the paper in my hands.
“It means,” the officer replied, “the court has taken control of every single property owned by James Reed. If you would like to find out more, then please head to the station.”
For a few seconds, I just stood there.
No this can’t be possible.
I no longer had access to anything I owned? Everything in this house, almost everything here had been bought by James. The car, the furniture, even some of the expensive decorations I liked to show off when guests came over.
And now I was hearing that all of it had been seized?
All because of some sudden story about James committing fraud?
But I had lived with him for so long. If he was really doing something illegal on that level, how could I not have noticed anything?
My thoughts were racing so fast that it almost gave me a headache.
Then suddenly, something hit me.
The realization came so quickly it felt like someone had thrown a rock straight at my head.
There was actually one time… years ago.
A memory started forming in my mind.
There was a time when James had once told me about a company he was going to submit a business proposal to. I remembered that day clearly now. We were sitting in the living room, and he looked unusually excited about something.
But the strange thing about it was that the proposal wasn’t even related to his field of work in any way.
That was what made me question him that day.
And when I asked him how he was planning to pull it off, all he told me was that he was going to take care of it.
That was it.
He didn’t explain anything else.
At that time, I didn’t think much about it. I honestly assumed he was just talking big like he sometimes did. And after that day, he never brought the topic up again.
So I forgot about it.
But now…
Now that memory was suddenly feeling very important.
Could that have been what got him into this mess now?
My grip on the document tightened again.
“shit!,” I muttered under my breath.
When things were finally starting to look better for me, when my plan with Isabel had just started moving in the right direction, James seriously had to mess everything up again.
I slowly lifted my head and looked past the officer toward the house.
Some other officers were still inside, moving around and talking among themselves as they searched through different areas of the place. The flashing red and blue lights from outside reflected faintly through the windows, making the whole scene look even more chaotic.
And the worst part was that I didn’t even know how deep the problem went yet.
Was this just about money?
Or was there more to it?
Because if the court had already moved this fast to seize everything, then that meant the situation was serious. Much more serious than I initially thought when I first saw James being dragged out in handcuffs.
My mind drifted briefly to Isabel.
If she heard about this…
No, I pushed that thought away immediately.
Right now, the most important thing was figuring out exactly what James had done and how badly it could affect me too. Because if the authorities started digging deeper into everything connected to him, I had no idea how far their investigation might go.
And that wasn’t a risk I could ignore.
I folded the document slowly and handed it back to the officer.
“Fine,” I said, forcing my voice to stay steady. “I’ll go to the station.”
The officer nodded slightly, stepping aside but still keeping his eyes on me.
I turned around and started walking back toward the gate, my thoughts running faster than my steps.
This night had taken a completely different turn than I expected.