Chapter 8 - The Digital Lifeline
I stared at the useless, torn piece of paper in my trembling hand.
The top half containing the fraudulent signature and the smudged notary seal was still back in my house.
Without it, the bank would proceed with the wire transfer in the morning, and I would lose everything.
I drove back to Sarah's house in a daze, the reality of my failure crashing down on me.
When I walked through her front door, she took one look at my torn clothes and pale face and rushed over.
"What happened? Are you hurt?" she asked, frantically checking me for injuries.
"Marcus had a gun," I gasped out, collapsing onto her living room sofa.
"I got away, but I lost the top half of the document during the fight."
Sarah cursed softly, pacing the living room floor with a deep frown on her face.
"Okay, the physical evidence is gone, which means we have to rely entirely on digital proof," she said.
"Where is the burner phone you took from Amanda?"
I reached into my other pocket and pulled out the small, black device.
"It locked itself while we were at the police station," I explained, handing it to her.
"I tried my birthday, Amanda's birthday, and our anniversary, but nothing worked."
Sarah took the phone and connected it to her heavily modified laptop.
"If I try to brute-force the passcode, the security software might wipe the entire hard drive," she warned.
"We need to figure out the exact code, or we lose all the text messages connecting Amanda to the forgery."
I rubbed my tired eyes, trying to think like the manipulative woman I almost married.
Amanda was entirely self-centered, but she was also incredibly lazy when it came to passwords.
Suddenly, a tiny voice echoed from the hallway.
"I know the numbers, Daddy."
I looked up to see Sophie standing in the doorway, rubbing her sleepy eyes.
I rushed over and knelt in front of her.
"What numbers, sweetie? Do you know the code to Amanda's secret phone?" I asked gently.
Sophie nodded her head slowly.
"She used it when she thought I wasn't looking in the car."
"She punched in my birthday, but backward."
It was a sick, twisted joke on Amanda's part, using the child she despised as her security key.
I called out the numbers to Sarah, my heart pounding in my throat.
Sarah typed the digits into the phone's keypad and pressed enter.
A satisfying chime echoed through the room as the home screen unlocked perfectly.
"We're in," Sarah announced triumphantly.
"I am downloading all the text messages, the bank routing details, and the emails to the corrupt notary."
"This is more than enough evidence to have them both arrested for felony fraud and attempted extortion."
I let out a massive sigh of relief and hugged Sophie tightly.
"You saved us, baby girl," I whispered into her hair.
"Let's pack this up and get to the police precinct right now," Sarah said, shutting her laptop.
Just as we stood up, Sarah's own cell phone rang with a blaring emergency tone.
She answered it, listened for a few seconds, and her face went completely white.
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"The bank just authorized an emergency overnight push," Sarah said, hanging up the phone.
"They aren't waiting until morning; the money is moving in exactly thirty minutes."
