Chapter 5 - THE COUNTER-ATTACK
By Thursday morning, less than twenty-four hours after I walked out of the Charlotte apartment, Grant launched his first strike.
I was sitting in the small home office of my parents' house in Knoxville, reviewing bank accounts, when my phone rang. It was my boss, Marcus Vance, the Vice President of Procurement at my company.
"Dana," Marcus said, his voice unusually stiff and formal. "I just received a very disturbing phone call from your husband, Grant."
I took a slow, deep breath, resting my elbow on the wooden desk. "What did he tell you, Marcus?"
"He claimed that you had a mental breakdown yesterday morning," Marcus said, sounding genuinely uncomfortable. "He said you assaulted him, stole seventeen hundred dollars in company-related gift cards from his home office, and fled the state. He told me he was considering filing criminal charges and warned me that you might try to divert company funds."
I felt a surge of cold fury, but my father’s training kicked in immediately. Don't react with emotion. Answer with facts.
"Marcus," I said, my voice ice-cold and professional. "Grant is lying. I have not had a breakdown, nor have I stolen any company funds. Yesterday morning, Grant attempted to physically strike me in our kitchen after I confronted him about stealing seventeen hundred dollars of our personal wedding cash to pay off his illegal debts."
Silence hit the line.
"Physical assault?" Marcus asked, his tone dropping sharply. "Dana... are you okay?"
"I defended myself and left the premises immediately," I said. "I am currently at my parents' house in Tennessee. Furthermore, Marcus, I have photographic evidence that Grant is currently under court summons for nearly one hundred thousand dollars in undisclosed personal debt and has a prior domestic violence record in South Carolina. I can email you copies of these documents immediately if you'd like to verify my stability."
"Send them," Marcus said without hesitation. "Right now."
I hit send on the pre-prepared email containing the safe documents.
Thirty seconds later, I heard Marcus let out a low whistle over the line. "My God, Dana... this guy is a total predator."
"He was trying to poison my standing at the company so I wouldn't have the leverage to divorce him," I explained.
"Don't worry about your job, Dana," Marcus said firmly. "Take all the personal time you need. I’m sending a note to HR right now blocking Grant from stepping foot on any of our corporate properties or reaching out to our payroll office. You protect yourself."
I closed my eyes, letting out a long breath. "Thank you, Marcus."
As soon as I hung up, my father walked into the room carrying two mugs of black coffee. He set one on my desk.
"Your boss?" Dad asked.
"Grant tried to get me fired," I said. "It didn't work."
Dad nodded approvingly, taking a sip of his coffee. "Good. First wave repelled. Now it's our turn to go on the offensive."
Dad tapped his phone screen and placed it on speaker.
"Raymond?" a sharp, female voice called out through the speaker. "I've got the Greenville files."
It was Sarah Lin, the private investigator and former fraud detective my father had called the day before.
"Go ahead, Sarah," Dad said.
"Grant Cole’s ex-wife, Vanessa, still lives in Greenville," Sarah reported. "I made contact with her two hours ago. Raymond... when I told her what happened to Dana three days after the wedding, she started crying on the phone."
I leaned over the desk. "Sarah, this is Dana. Is Vanessa willing to talk to us?"
"Dana, she’s not just willing to talk," Sarah replied. "She has sworn affidavits, financial audit trails, and bank records from three years ago proving Grant did the exact same thing to her. He married her, bled her savings dry, and when she confronted him, he tried to beat her into submission."
Sarah paused, taking a breath.
"And Dana? Vanessa said to tell you one more thing."
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"What's that?"
"Grant didn't just hide his debt from you," Sarah said quietly. "He’s currently using a fake Social Security number on your joint tax filings in Charlotte to hide his asset transfers. He’s committing federal tax fraud."
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