Chapter 5: Digital Web of Deceit
While his daughters found solace in the mountain air, Gabriel’s intelligence team was dismantling Edmund Thorne’s conspiracy piece by piece.
Working from an encrypted workstation in the cabin’s lower study, Briggs brought up the financial forensic trail.
"Edmund wasn't operating alone," Briggs explained, pointing to a network of offshore transactions originating in the Cayman Islands. "He was heavily leveraged in illegal overseas short positions. He lost over forty million dollars of his own capital and was facing imminent margin calls from predatory lenders."
"So he needed Isabella’s conservatorship trust to bail himself out," Gabriel observed, his eyes narrowing into cold slits.
"Precisely," Briggs nodded. "The Thorne Family Trust allocates thirty-five percent of all dividend voting rights to Isabella upon your incapacitation or legal forfeiture. Edmund partnered with a corrupt private custody evaluator, Dr. Jonathan Vance, who was paid five hundred thousand dollars to sign off on a fraudulent report claiming Isabella was suffering severe developmental trauma under your roof."
Gabriel reviewed the forged medical evaluations, the falsified psychological assessments, and the audio clips spliced together from the planted listening device to make normal childhood tantrums sound like signs of extreme abuse.
It was a cold, calculated masterpiece of character assassination and child exploitation.
"Does Edmund know we’ve relocated to the Adirondacks?" Gabriel asked.
May you like
"He thinks you went to London on emergency business," Briggs replied. "He’s preparing to file the emergency custody petition tomorrow morning at the Manhattan Family Court."
A faint, dangerous smile touched Gabriel’s lips. "Let him file it. Let him bring every corrupt co-conspirator into the light of that courtroom. We will give him the hearing he has always dreamed of."
