Chapter 29 - Dorian’s Discovery
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Despite my strict orders to ignore the vicious smear campaign, Dorian Pike was completely incapable of letting a financial mystery go unsolved. He spent his entire weekend deep-diving into the dark web of digital payments, determined to definitively prove Adrian was the architect behind the attacks. On Monday morning, Dorian didn't even say hello when I walked into the office; he simply slammed a highly detailed manifest onto my desk.
"You told me not to actively sue them," Dorian said, adjusting his glasses with a completely victorious smirk. "You didn't say I couldn't legally track the funding source."
"Dorian, I told you to focus on the Peterson crypto case," I sighed, though I couldn't help but look down at the complicated manifest.
"The Peterson case is fully handled, the digital wallets are frozen," he dismissed quickly. "Now, look closely at line forty-two of this banking ledger. I tracked the payments made to the digital troll farm that published the lies about you."
I traced my finger down the page, my eyes widening as I read the name associated with the routing number. It wasn't Adrian's primary account, nor was it his business account.
"This is a corporate account belonging to Adrian’s new father-in-law," I said, looking up in absolute shock. "He used his new wife's family money to fund a targeted harassment campaign against me?"
"Exactly," Dorian beamed, clearly thrilled by his own forensic brilliance. "Adrian is completely broke, Hartley. His reckless spending and your divorce settlement completely gutted his liquidity. He is heavily leveraging his new marriage to maintain his false illusion of power. And he committed blatant wire fraud to do it."
"This changes absolutely everything," I whispered, the massive implications settling into my brain.
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"Do we take this to the press?" Marisol asked, practically vibrating with excitement from the doorway.
"No," I smiled, picking up the highly sensitive document and placing it carefully into my top drawer. "We take it directly to Adrian’s new father-in-law. Let’s see how much he actually enjoys discovering that his new son-in-law is secretly siphoning his corporate funds to obsessively harass his ex-wife. We aren't going to destroy Adrian. We are going to let his own toxic financial habits do the heavy lifting for us."
