CHAPTER 5: Victor’s Black Folder

Victor opened a thin black folder at the edge of the altar.

Julian laughed.

“You brought paperwork to a wedding?”

Victor’s eyes remained cold.

“You brought blackmail.”

Rachel stepped forward.

“The offshore company shown in Julian’s video was created by Voss Strategic Consulting.”

Murmurs spread through the church.

Julian turned toward her.

“That company is inactive.”

“It received three transfers from a vendor controlled by your college roommate,” Rachel said. “Ava looked at Julian.

Julian lowered the phone.

Victor pointed toward it.

“Do not erase anything.”

Julian smiled again, but sweat had appeared near his temple.

“You cannot prove what is on my personal device.”

Ava looked at the phone.

Then she remembered the night Julian edited videos at their apartment. He had complained that his cloud storage kept syncing unfinished files.

Her eyes lifted.

“Actually,” she said, “I think we can.”

Julian had once mocked Ava for keeping the old Sterling security system. He called it paranoid, expensive, and unnecessary. Ava kept it because her mother’s photographs and foundation records were stored there.

That small refusal now mattered.

Julian had assumed access meant ownership. He had never considered that the same network helping him edit a lie could preserve every draft he tried to hide.