Arthur Sterling paused, frowning as he looked from Julian to me. "Is that him?"
"That’s him," Julian whispered, his fingers curling into tight fists at his sides.
Sterling adjusted his rimless glasses, his expression shifting into that smooth, condescending composure cultivated over forty years of handling municipal receiverships. He walked directly up to my bench, stopping three feet away, his associate lingering nervously behind his shoulder.
"Mr. Vance," Sterling said, his voice quiet, cultivated, and entirely devoid of heat. "I am Arthur Sterling. I understand you had a somewhat contentious exchange with my junior partner on your flight this morning. Tensions run high in corporate transitions, but I assure you, dramatic gestures in public corridors do not alter the trajectory of commercial equity."
I looked up at him without shifting my posture. "You're thirty minutes early for a public hearing, Mr. Sterling."
"The 8:30 call is not a public hearing, sir," Sterling replied smoothly, lifting his hand to check a wafer-thin gold wristwatch. "It is an administrative presentation of uncontested orders in chambers. You are not a licensed attorney in the State of Illinois. You have not filed an appearance through the electronic clerk portal. You have no standing to speak before Chancellor Miller. If you attempt to push into chambers, the sheriff’s deputy will remove you and hold you in downstairs processing until noon."
He leaned slightly closer, his eyes narrowing behind his clean lenses. "Your brother Kenneth made a fully authorized commercial election under the 1984 trust agreement. He sold his residual rights to our holding company. Apex Foundry is an environmental and financial liability, and the receivership order will be signed this morning. If you leave now, my firm is prepared to offer you fifty thousand dollars in relocation assistance and complete indemnity against municipal tax liens. That offer expires the moment the chancellor signs the roll."
"Show him the money again, Julian," I said, looking past Sterling’s shoulder straight into Croft’s pale face. "Maybe this time you can throw it on the floor."
Julian stepped forward, his mouth opening in fury, but before he could speak, the brass deadbolt on the double doors of Room 802 clicked open.
A uniformed Cook County sheriff’s deputy opened the heavy oak door, holding a printed docket sheet on an aluminum clipboard. "Attorneys on the 8:30 uncontested emergency call only. Check in with the clerk at the railing."
Sterling nodded curtly to the deputy. "Sterling and Croft for petitioner Harbor Horizon, Officer. Case 04918."
Sterling and the associate swept through the doorway, Julian following closely behind. I stood up, swung my canvas satchel onto my shoulder, and walked straight through the opening behind them.
"Sir, attorneys only," the deputy said, stepping into my path with his hand resting near his duty belt.
"I am Martin Vance," I said, my voice carrying clearly into the paneled courtroom. "I am the named owner of the real property in case 2026-CH-04918. I am here to answer an emergency petition claiming I abandoned my property and cannot be found."
The deputy paused, his eyes flicking down to his clipboard where the party caption was clearly printed: Harbor Horizon v. Vance. He looked at Sterling, who was already at the clerk’s mahogany rail twenty feet ahead.
"Step up to the rail, sir," the deputy muttered, releasing the door and keeping two paces behind me. "Keep your hands where the bench can see them."
Room 802 was massive, lined with dark walnut paneling and towering twenty-foot windows that looked out over the gray rain falling on the Loop. Chancellor Evelyn Miller was already seated behind the high curved bench. She was a woman in her late fifties with sharp, observant dark eyes and silver-streaked hair, wearing wire-framed reading glasses as she turned pages in a tall stack of pending orders. Her court clerk sat below her at a computer terminal, stamping files with a mechanical thud.
Sterling stepped smoothly to the center lectern, placing his leather attaché on the wood. "Good morning, Your Honor. Arthur Sterling and Julian Croft for the petitioner in Harbor Horizon Legal Holdings versus Martin Vance and Apex Foundry. Docket 2026-CH-04918. We are here on the uncontested emergency motion for partition, appointment of receiver, and immediate judicial deed transfer. All statutory notice periods have expired without appearance or responsive pleading. We have submitted the prepared decree for Your Honor’s signature."
Chancellor Miller did not look up from her papers immediately. She turned a page, her pen hovering over the signature line of the decree. "This is the industrial riverfront parcel with the alleged environmental hazard?"
"Precisely, Your Honor," Sterling said, his delivery polished and rhythmic. "The primary operating partner abandoned the facility following the 2021 incident. Due diligence affidavits confirm the subject cannot be located within his home jurisdiction. Service was completed by publication and certified mail under Local Rule 6. 4. The minority beneficiary, Kenneth Vance, has consented to the liquidation to prevent municipal tax foreclosure."
Chancellor Miller dipped her pen toward the paper. "Very well. The court finds—"