Chapter 6 - The Smear Campaign
By Monday morning, Mark’s counter-attack began, not with violence, but with character assassination.
Sarah worked as a senior marketing director at a prestigious downtown firm. At 9:00 AM, her boss called. I put it on speakerphone so Sarah could hear.
"Sarah, I don't know how to say this," her boss stammered, sounding incredibly uncomfortable. "But Mark’s lawyers just served the company with a preservation order. They are claiming you embezzled company funds to hide assets for a divorce. Human Resources is putting you on unpaid administrative leave pending an investigation."
Sarah gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. "That's a lie! I never touched a dime!"
"I know it's a lie," I snapped into the phone. "This is a retaliatory tactic by an abuser facing felony charges. If your company complies with this intimidation, I will personally file a wrongful termination and harassment suit that will bankrupt you."
Her boss hung up, terrified.
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"He’s destroying my life," Sarah sobbed, pulling her knees to her chest. "He wants me to have no money, no job, no credibility. He wants me to crawl back to him."
"He wants to drain your resources so you can't fight the divorce," I corrected, my mind racing. "But he forgot one thing. I'm a detective. I know how to dig. If he wants to play financial games, let's see what skeletons are hiding in his real estate company."
