Chapter 3: The Digital Dagger
Marcus lunged for the phone, desperate to cut the feed, but Sophie swiped it away.
"You want to know what’s on this computer?" she whispered, gesturing to the open laptop sitting on the desk—the device Marcus had thought was his greatest prize. "You thought you found my personal diary. You thought you had leverage."
She turned the screen toward him. It wasn't a diary. It was the "Ghost Ledger."
"This drive contains the unencrypted, blockchain-verified ledger of 'Project Obsidian,'" Sophie explained, her voice gaining strength. "Every illegal lobbyist payment you made to the Governor. Every environmental regulation you bypassed to build the toxic waste site in the Midwest. And, most importantly, the wire transfers you used to fund the sabotage of my father’s yacht."
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The evidence was undeniable. It was metadata, bank routing numbers, and encrypted text messages that couldn't be deleted. It was enough to bury Marcus and Vanessa for consecutive life sentences in a federal supermax prison.
"The Feds are already in the lobby," Sophie added. "And they have the decrypted files. You didn't steal an empire, Marcus. You just stole a prison cell."
