Chapter 5 - The Legal Counteroffensive
Tessa stared at Victoria Vance in disbelief. "You're Richard Vance's sister? And you want to represent me against your own brother's firm?"
"My brother and I share a last name and a law firm's founding partner lineage," Victoria said, taking a seat at the dining table without waiting for an invitation. "We do not share ethics, equity pools, or mutual affection. Richard has spent fifteen years representing abusive, wealthy tech executives who use corporate intimidation tactics to crush their wives in court. I spend my life undoing his work."
She pulled a stack of legal documents from her briefcase and spread them across the laminate table.
"First," Victoria said, pointing to a document stamped CONFIDENTIAL, "let's address the immediate emergency. Tomorrow morning at 9:00 AM, Judge Patricia Gomez will preside over the county's emergency protective custody hearing. Judge Gomez is a no-nonsense, old-school family court judge. She hates social media circuses, she hates grandstanding, and above all, she hates parents who use children as chess pieces in financial disputes."
"Derek claims he didn't post the video," Tessa noted.
"Of course he did," Victoria replied smoothly. "And we are going to prove it. But family court moves on evidence, not accusations. If we go into that courtroom tomorrow screaming about bot farms and PR managers without ironclad forensic proof, Richard will paint you as a paranoid, hysterical woman suffering from postpartum psychosis."
"We have the IP address!" Clara chimed in, pointing to Mark Brody's forensics printout. "The cloud feed was accessed from Sarah Miller's apartment at 9:28 PM!"
Victoria picked up the printout, scanned it quickly, and nodded. "Good. That’s a start. But an IP address belonging to a third party only proves Sarah Miller accessed the feed. It doesn't legally prove Derek authorized or directed the upload."
"Then what do we do?" Tessa asked, her pulse quickening.
Victoria leaned forward, her dark eyes pinning Tessa with absolute intensity. "We hit them where they are most vulnerable—the timeline. In his police statement, Derek claimed he was working late at his office building downtown until 9:15 PM, at which point he drove home, arriving at 9:55 PM."
"He was at The Brass Lantern bar," Tessa repeated firmly. "He had a yellow wristband."
"The Brass Lantern," Victoria said, pulling out a pen, "uses an automated electronic point-of-sale system connected to OpenTable for VIP table reservations. Did he pay with cash or a credit card?"
"He never carries cash," Tessa said instantly. "He uses his corporate American Express card for everything."
Victoria smiled—a terrifying, brilliant flash of white teeth. "A corporate card statement leaves a real-time digital log in the banking portal. If he charged a tab at The Brass Lantern at 8:45 PM while claiming to be at his desk, he committed perjury in a signed police declaration."
"Can we subpoena those credit card records before tomorrow morning?" Clara asked.
"We don't need a subpoena," Victoria said, looking at Tessa. "Mrs. Rowan, are you listed as an authorized user on his primary American Express account, or do you have access to the joint household portal?"
Tessa froze, her mind racing back through months of financial routines. "The primary card is in his name, but the joint household expense account is linked to the same master online banking login. I have the master username and password saved on my cloud password manager."
Victoria set a clean laptop in front of Tessa. "Log in."
Tessa’s fingers flew across the keyboard. She opened the secure password vault, copied the credentials, and accessed the master online banking dashboard for the American Express account.
The screen loaded.
Under Recent Pending Transactions, dated yesterday evening at 8:42 PM, was an entry:
THE BRASS LANTERN LOUNGE - SPRINGFIELD - $342.50
Tessa clicked on the transaction details. The itemized digital receipt popped up on the screen:
2x Macallan 18 Neat - $110.00 1x Caymus Cabernet Bottle - $180.00 1x Artisanal Cheese Board - $32.00 Gratuity: $20.50 Table: VIP Booth 4 Guests: 2
"342 dollars at a VIP lounge with two guests at 8:42 PM," Victoria read aloud, her voice dripping with satisfaction. "While his wife was suffering from a 104-degree fever, calling him in tears, begging him to come home because she was passing out."
"And look at the second pending charge," Clara pointed out, tapping the screen.
Directly below the bar charge, dated 9:12 PM, was another pending transaction:
PRIME BOT SOLUTIONS LLC - ONLINE - $1,500.00
May you like
Tessa stared at the second transaction. "Prime Bot Solutions?"
Victoria let out a soft, low laugh. "Derek Rowan didn't just hire a bot farm to ruin your reputation, Mrs. Rowan. The absolute idiot paid for the viral social media campaign using his joint corporate credit card."
