Chapter 5 - Digital Footprints
The moment his car tires crunched down the gravel driveway, I didn't cry. Tears were a luxury I couldn't afford while my child was vulnerable. Instead, I picked up my phone and called my older sister, Evelyn, who was a senior partner at a prominent family law firm downtown.
When Evelyn answered, she knew immediately that something was wrong from the flat cadence of my voice. "Cat? What happened? Is Louisa sick?"
"Louisa is fine, Evie," I said, sitting back down at the island surrounded by the printed spreadsheets. "Miles didn't enroll her in health coverage. He let the thirty-day window expire so he could try to add his mistress to his corporate policy. And he's embezzling money out of our joint HSA to fund her expenses."
Evelyn was silent for three full seconds. When she spoke again, her legal instincts took over completely. "Tell me you haven't deleted anything."
"I pulled the portal logs, the bank transactions, and the external account numbers," I said. "He thinks he has leverage because he makes more base salary and my maternity leave makes me look dependent. He threatened to take custody."
Evelyn laughed, a sharp, humorless sound. "He has no idea who he's dealing with, does he? Cat, listen to me very carefully. Do not change the locks tonight. Changing locks without a court order can complicate possession hearings. But tomorrow morning, I want you to go down to the county clerk's office and file for an emergency temporary custody order and exclusive possession of the marital residence based on willful child neglect and financial dissipation."
"Can I get Louisa covered?" That was the only question that mattered to me.
"Yes. Under federal COBRA regulations and qualifying state mandates, a court order establishing a parental duty of support allows for an immediate special enrollment petition, forcing his insurer to retroactively add her regardless of the thirty-day deadline. But we have to move fast before he liquidates any more assets."
After hanging up with Evelyn, I couldn't sleep. The adrenaline buzzing under my skin kept me wide awake. I sat in our home office and opened our family cloud storage. Miles was technologically proficient in marketing, but he was sloppy with automated cloud syncing. His personal tablet, which he had left charging on his desk, was tethered to his primary Apple account.
I unlocked the screen. His text messages were syncing in real time.
The last conversation was between Miles and Vanessa Thorne, sent forty minutes ago from the parking lot of an extended-stay hotel near O'Hare.
Miles: She knows about the policy. She called HR today.
Vanessa: What?! Miles, are you serious? Did Brenda tell her about the apartment lease too?
Miles: No, just the dependent form. Don't panic. I told her it was corporate emergency funds. I'm going to freeze her out of the secondary accounts tonight so she can't retain an attorney.
May you like
Vanessa: If my rent check bounces on Friday, Miles, I'm going straight to the managing partners. You promised this promotion was going to cover my moving costs from Denver.
I stared at the glowing blue bubbles on the screen, reading the exchange twice to make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. Vanessa wasn't just his mistress; she was blackmailing him. Miles hadn't just dipped into our savings out of romantic affection—he had committed corporate fraud to keep her quiet about a quid-pro-quo promotion scheme inside Apex Digital.
