Chapter 14 - Unraveling the WebRobert Vance did not wait for the slow wheels of civil litigation to turn.
While Karen worked to restore Chloe’s wiped cloud back-ups using off-site physical mirrors we had secured months prior, Robert filed an emergency motion for a federal injunction against Marcus Prescott and his proxy holdings.
We met Robert at his secondary office in downtown Baltimore that afternoon. Spread across a large conference table were corporate filings, property records, and bank transfer logs tracing the money Marcus had used to purchase the restaurant’s assets.
"Marcus made a critical error," Robert said, laying out a series of financial charts. "When he purchased the digital archives from the bankruptcy receiver, he signed a sworn affidavit stating he had no financial or familial connection to Damian Prescott. That was a requirement of the court-ordered liquidation."
"He lied on a federal bankruptcy declaration?" I asked.
"Not only did he lie," Robert smiled thinly, "he used a shell company registered under his wife's maiden name to fund the purchase. That constitutes perjury and bankruptcy fraud."
Robert looked at Chloe, his eyes serious. "We have enough to hit Marcus with a federal subpoena by tomorrow morning. But to shut this down permanently—to cut Damian’s pull from inside the prison—we need to prove that Damian personally directed Marcus to launch this harassment campaign against your clients."
Chloe went silent for a long moment. She looked at the papers spread across the table, then reached into her purse and pulled out a small, worn flash drive she had kept hidden in her wallet since the day we left Atlanta.
"What is that?" Robert asked.
"Before Damian took my personal laptop," Chloe said softly, her voice growing stronger with every word, "I encrypted an auto-recording log from my design workstation. It recorded every internal phone call made through the restaurant's private network during my last two months there."
She placed the drive on the glass table.
"There is a conversation on here from August," Chloe continued. "Damian and Marcus discussing how to use offshore proxy accounts to hide assets if the state tax audit went south—and how they planned to use my name as the primary tax scapegoat."
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Robert picked up the drive, a look of profound respect washing over his face. "Chloe... you had this the entire time?"
"I was too afraid to use it during the trial," she admitted, looking up at me. "I thought if I brought it out, Damian’s lawyers would use it to drag the trial out for years. But now... now I realize that keeping his secrets doesn't protect me. It only protects him."
