Chapter 4 - The Digital Bluff
The news from Hawaii hit me like a physical blow to the chest.
My parents and sister had been detained, but they had immediately invoked their right to an attorney.
Sarah was playing the victim, claiming she had no idea David was a criminal.
My father told the marshals that he thought the blue folder contained family recipes.
It was a blatant, insulting lie.
Without the physical documents inside that folder, the financial crimes division couldn't freeze David's offshore accounts.
He had twenty-four hours to move the money before the temporary injunction expired.
I paced the floor of my living room, my phone pressed to my ear.
“He’s going to get away with it,” I told my divorce lawyer, my voice laced with venom.
“Megan, we need that paperwork,” my lawyer replied, sounding exhausted.
“He has shell companies in the Cayman Islands that we can only track with those specific account numbers.”
I ended the call and stared out the window into the dark street.
David was a coward, but he was a meticulous coward.
He wouldn't just destroy the folder; he would use it to finalize the transfers.
Suddenly, a realization struck me with the force of a freight train.
David didn't know I had made digital backups of the most damning pages.
I hadn't told my lawyer because I acquired those specific pages by guessing David’s email password months ago.
It wasn't strictly legal, and it would never hold up in court on its own.
But David didn't know that.
He only knew the physical folder existed.
I booted up my laptop, my fingers flying across the keyboard.
I drafted a new email, attaching a heavily encrypted zip file.
The subject line read: 'I have the copies, David.'
May you like
I hit send to his primary business email, knowing he would be monitoring it for bank confirmations.
Now, I just had to wait for the rat to take the bait.
