Chapter 7 - THE LAPTOP

Lucian arrived twenty-six minutes later, alone in a black coat.

“Why come yourself?” Ava asked.

“No lying, remember? I wanted to make sure you were all right.”

She hated believing him.

Naomi imaged the laptop without altering the original.

The files showed years of off-book payments.

Shell companies.

Consulting retainers.

Political donations.

Acquisition information.

Sterling North had been paying intermediaries tied to Langford Development.

Damian had copied Ava’s identity into the system because her clean financial history made Knox Consulting useful.

Then Ava found a forged two-hundred-thousand-dollar loan guarantee bearing her signature.

She whispered, “That isn’t mine.”

Lucian leaned closer.

“Do you recognize the date?”

Ava did.

The date was the day after her grandmother died, while Ava was in Ohio and Damian stayed in New York.

“I gave him my passport before I left.”

“Why?”

“He said he needed it to book a surprise trip.”

Lucian’s jaw tightened.

Ava laughed bitterly.

“There was no trip.”

Naomi said, “This is strong evidence.”

“Of what?”

“Identity theft. Fraud. Potential money laundering.”

Ava thought of four years spent defending Damian while he quietly built a system that used her name.

Lucian sat across from her.

“He chose you because you trusted him.”

Ava looked up.

“That doesn’t make me feel better.”

“It wasn’t meant to.”

Then Naomi found a video file.

Damian stood in a conference room with Victoria’s father, Charles Langford.

Damian said, “Ava will sign whatever I put in front of her.”

Charles replied, “And if she doesn’t?”

Damian laughed.

“She won’t read it.”

The video was three years old, long before Damian claimed success had changed him.

He had been using her when she still believed they were building a life together.

Lucian paused the video. “I want to destroy him,” Ava said.

“No.”

She turned.

He continued.

“You want to expose him.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Destroying him makes this revenge.”

May you like

My Son Sat There While His Wife Slapped My 4-Year-Old Granddaughter Hold...

MY SON WATCHED HIS WIFE HIT MY FOUR-YEAR-OLD GRANDDAUGHTER—BUT WHAT LILY WHISPERED NEXT MADE MY BLOOD RUN COLD.My four-year-old gr...

**My Wife Secretly Unplugged the Nursery Camera, Then Approached My 6-Mo...

My Wife Secretly Unplugged the Nursery Camera—Then I Saw Her Standing Over My 6-Month-Old Son With a Red-Hot Iron. But What She Sa...

I Came Home Early and Found My 5-Year-Old Daughter Eating Scraps Beside...

I thought I was coming home to an ordinary dinner.Instead, I found my five-year-old daughter sitting on the kitchen floor beside t...

His eyes stayed on hers.

“Exposing him makes it consequence.”