Encrypted Evidence
Natalie wakes in an emergency room after her husband Ethan attacks her and demands the password to a hidden archive. What he does not know is that her encrypted financial records, voting control and automatic backups have already placed the evidence beyond his reach—and in the hands of people ready to act.
Fiction. Contains severe domestic violence, strangulation, traumatic injuries, coercive control, financial crime, medical distress and legal proceedings.Chapter One: Fingerprints on the neck
I was discharged from the hospital wearing a hospital wristband, and Ethan put his hands around my neck. Before I even fully woke up, that memory was already playing back like a rewind: the cold floor tiles in the kitchen, his vicious whisper in my ear——
“You never know when to shut up.”
Then the world fell into darkness. When I opened my eyes again, long white fluorescent lights flickered overhead. The wheels of the emergency cart screeched against the tiles. Someone is asking my name. Another man was using scissors to cut the clothing off my shoulders.
My whole body felt like it had been taken apart and then put back together haphazardly, and there was no part of it that was not free from pain. Ethan put one hand in his pocket and walked slowly beside me.
Calm down. Elegant. Flawless.
“She slipped in the bathroom,” he told the nurse. “It was a terrible accident.”
My lips moved. Can’t make any sound. Ethan looked at me condescendingly, with the same look he had when facing the jousting photographers at the charity dinner. A loving husband. A loving companion. A victim who has suffered from unparalleled disaster.
His hands gently moved the messy hair from my face, covering the horrible bruises. To outsiders, this may seem like an gentle gesture. But I know it better than anyone else. That was a warning to shut up.
My name is Natalie Hayes. Three years before that night, I married Ethan Rhodes because I firmly believed that ambition and cruelty were two different things. Ethan is charming in front of others, but restless in private. He is especially good at making others feel that they are his chosen ones, until they become useless.
Six months after we got married, he hit me for the first time. He cried profusely afterwards. Then came apologies, flowers, weekend getaways, and vows of eternal love. Then there is the door lock replacement.
Then there’s the password I can’t guess anymore. Then when I questioned it, my phone mysteriously disappeared.
Then came the so-called “joint finances,” which turned out to be his close monitoring of every purchase I made, while his own accounts were always kept absolutely confidential.
By our third wedding anniversary, Ethan was convinced that he controlled everything in my life. He couldn’t be more wrong. Before getting married, I was a forensic accountant. My daily job is to track down hidden assets for investigators, uncover fraud and fraud, and follow the layers of shell companies to find those scammers who are trying to hide the truth.
When Ethan’s construction company was within weeks of failure, I was the one who reorganized the entire financial structure. His name is printed on the glass door. But hidden at the bottom of the legal documents is my name.
Through a private trust established by my late father, I quietly retained majority voting control of Apex Development. Ethan signed those documents in the midst of a life-or-death crisis, and because he believed in his heart that the legal process was nothing more than a trick used to trip up mediocre people, he signed the documents without even looking at them.
I have been secretly preparing to leave for the past six months. Photos. Bank flow. Threat information. Medical report. Encrypt files. All evidence is directed to one person. My brother, Liam. Dr. Liam Hayes, chief of emergency medicine at Riverside Hospital.
As early as the first time he saw the bruises on my wrists, he earnestly advised me to leave.
“You don’t need any more evidence,” he said.
“I need a piece of hard evidence that no one can erase.”
He stared at me sadly.
“You may not even wait until the day you collect the evidence.”
That night, Ethan accidentally discovered that I had ordered an independent audit of Summit Development. He forced me to hand over my password. I refused. The kitchen turned into a courtroom without witnesses. And Ethan sentenced me to death with his fist.
in the emergency room, the door burst open. A doctor in navy blue scrubs strode in. Ethan forced a polite smile.
“Doctor, my wife accidentally fell.”
Liam walked straight to the cart. Then he saw my face clearly.