Chapter 3: The Secret in the Closet
They didn't go home. Liam checked them into a quiet hotel room on the other side of the city. He needed space, and he needed to make sure Sophie was safe.
He sat on the edge of the bed, watching his daughter watch a cartoon. She looked calmer, but there was a stillness in her that worried him.
"Sophie, honey," Liam said softly, sitting beside her. "I need to know. Has... has Victoria ever done anything else? Anything that wasn't about photos?"
Sophie hesitated, then looked up. "She told me if I told you, she would tell the teachers at school that I was a liar, and then you wouldn't love me anymore. She took your files, Daddy."
Liam froze. "What files?"
"The ones in the study. The ones with the blue locks. She put them in the trash bin at the park when you were at work. And she changed your passwords. She said she was 'cleaning up' your life."
Liam’s heart sank. He worked in finance; his files were his livelihood. He scrambled to his laptop, checking his remote access logs.
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He didn't just find unauthorized access; he found evidence of massive, systematic sabotage. Victoria hadn't just been jealous; she had been trying to drain his firm’s accounts and pin it on his junior partner. She had been setting him up to take the fall for a massive tax fraud.
He wasn't just walking away from a bad marriage; he had narrowly escaped a felony conviction.
