Julian's Leverage
Chapter 07 - Julian's Leverage
Marcus Bell, Victor's head of security, arrived within the hour, laptop already open, tracing the phone number the anonymous text had come from.
He set up at the kitchen table without being asked, the specific efficiency of a man who'd clearly spent the last twenty-four hours running on very little sleep and even less patience for anything getting in his way.
"It's a burner," Marcus said, after several minutes of work. "Purchased with cash three days ago, at a convenience store two miles from your husband's office."
He turned the laptop screen slightly so Ava and Victor could both see the security camera still frame he'd already pulled, grainy but unmistakable.
"Three days ago," Ava repeated. "The same day he found the divorce papers."
"That's not a coincidence," Marcus said. "I believe Julian sent that message himself, or had someone send it on his behalf, hoping to create exactly this kind of chaos and doubt inside your own family before we could move against him."
Victor sat very still, processing that theory. "He wants us distracted. Fighting our own history instead of focusing on prosecuting him."
"That would be my assessment," Marcus said. "Which doesn't mean the underlying history isn't real. I did some digging of my own, once I confirmed Preston Okafor's identity. There's an unresolved lawsuit filed by his estate eleven years ago, alleging fraudulent buyout terms. It was settled quietly, out of court, with a confidentiality agreement attached."
Victor's jaw tightened. "I paid his family a considerable settlement. I thought that closed the matter permanently."
He rubbed his temples, the specific exhaustion of a man realizing that no amount of money ever truly closes a wound, it simply buys the silence surrounding it for a while.
"Confidentiality agreements can be violated," Marcus said. "Or sold. Or leaked, deliberately, by someone who wants to use old information as new leverage."
"Could Julian have found this on his own," Ava asked. "Without help from anyone connected to the original case."
"Not easily," Marcus said. "Sealed settlements are difficult to locate without either inside knowledge or a fairly sophisticated private investigator. I'd want to know who Julian's been paying for outside services over the past year, separate from whatever accounts we've already flagged."
Ava looked between the two men, feeling like she was watching a chess game unfold that had started decades before she was even born, one that had somehow, impossibly, ended up threatening her baby's safety tonight.
"So Julian found out about the settlement," she said slowly, "and he's threatening to expose it unless we back off the embezzlement charges."
"That's my working theory," Marcus said. "I'd want to confirm it before we act on it directly. But if I'm right, this isn't simply a case of a controlling husband finally getting caught. This is a calculated negotiation, and Julian is playing considerably more strategically than his behavior last night might have suggested."
Victor sat back, exhausted, a man weighing forty-one years of careful reputation against his daughter's immediate safety.
"What do you want to do," Ava asked him quietly.
"I want to protect you," Victor said, "completely, regardless of what it costs my own reputation. I've spent four decades protecting the wrong things sometimes, Ava. I don't intend to make that mistake again, not with you, not with this baby."
"Even if it means the Okafor story comes out publicly."
"Even then," Victor said. "I'd rather face that consequence honestly than let Julian use it to buy his way out of what he actually did to you."
Marcus's laptop chimed. He glanced down, and his expression sharpened considerably.
May you like
He didn't say anything for a moment, just kept scrolling, his jaw tightening with every new line that appeared on the screen.
"There's something else you both need to see," he said. "Before you decide anything."
