Chapter 5 - The Deleted Archives
Andrew couldn't remember the encryption password. He had set it up years ago and handed the account management over to his IT department.
He didn't call his corporate IT guys—he couldn't risk leaks right now. Instead, he reached out to a private cyber-forensics expert recommended by his investigator. The expert, a quiet guy named Miller, arrived at the Hamptons house within three hours, carrying two heavy briefcases of equipment.
For twelve agonizing hours, Miller worked in Andrew’s study. They bypassed the physical router, accessing the deep archives of the cloud provider.
“She was thorough,” Miller muttered, typing furiously lines of code into a black terminal screen. “She wiped the local drive completely. She even called the security company posing as your assistant and requested a remote wipe of the primary cloud storage.”
Andrew felt a cold sweat break out on his neck. “Are you telling me it’s gone?”
“I said she was thorough, Mr. Salgado. I didn't say she was smart,” Miller smirked. “She wiped the primary storage. But enterprise-grade systems have a shadow-backup protocol. A fail-safe in case of ransomware. It takes a backdoor key to access it. Give me ten more minutes.”
Andrew paced the floor. Valerie was asleep upstairs, guarded by a private security officer outside her door. The media circus was still raging outside the estate gates.
“Got it,” Miller said suddenly.
The laptop screen flickered, and suddenly, hundreds of video thumbnails populated the screen, organized by date and time.
“Filter it by the interior living room and Valerie’s bedroom,” Andrew ordered, his voice tight. “Look at the dates when I was traveling in London last month.”
Miller clicked on a file from three weeks ago. The video buffered, then played in crystal-clear high definition.
There was Sophia, standing in the living room holding a glass of wine. Valerie was kneeling on the hardwood floor in the corner, facing the wall.
“You think crying is going to make him come home?” Sophia’s voice sneered through the laptop speakers. “He’s in London because he can’t stand looking at you. If you move from that spot before the clock strikes eight, I’m taking the ruler to your legs again.”
Andrew gripped the edge of the desk so hard his knuckles turned white. Watching the footage was pure torture. He saw Sophia grabbing Valerie by the hair to drag her away from the television. He saw the psychological torment, the cruel whispers, the physical strikes.
He had hours of it. Undeniable, timestamped, high-definition proof of a monster at work.
Andrew didn’t scream. He didn't break anything. He just pulled out his phone and called Evelyn Vance.
“Evelyn,” Andrew said, his voice dead calm. “I have it. I have everything.”
May you like
“Bring it to my office,” Evelyn replied, a predatory excitement in her tone. “The preliminary custody hearing is on Friday. It’s time to spring the trap.”
---
