Chapter 6 - The Emergency Meeting at Sunrise
The digital clock on my dashboard read 5:45 AM when I pulled back into the hospital parking lot. Inside Room 4, my parents were sleeping peacefully, hooked up to intravenous saline drips and pain management pumps. Dr. Harrison met me in the hallway, holding a fresh stack of official medical reports.
"They stabilized through the night, Daniel," Dr. Harrison said, handing me the folder. "The physical injuries will heal in a few weeks, but the psychological scars... that’s going to take much longer. What’s your next move?"
"Marcus Vance is meeting me at the county courthouse at 9:00 AM," I replied, tucking the folder under my arm. "He’s going to reverse every fraudulent deed transfer and sign over full legal restitution to my father."
Dr. Harrison frowned, crossing his arms. "Marcus Vance doesn't give up control of multimillion-dollar land deals easily, Daniel. That man has mafia ties in Atlanta and a dozen corrupt county officials on his payroll. If you back a cornered predator into a wall without absolute backup, he’ll fight dirty."
"Let him," I said grimly. "I brought my own backup."
At 8:30 AM, I parked my truck outside the grand marble columns of the county courthouse. The morning sun glinted off the courthouse dome, casting long shadows across the square. I wasn't alone this time. Sitting in the passenger seat of my truck was Sarah Jenkins, a tenacious investigative reporter for the *Atlanta Chronicle*, whom I had contacted securely through encrypted channels late last night after reviewing her award-winning exposés on rural land fraud.
"You've got the full digital archive?" Sarah asked, adjusting her glasses as she pulled her press badge from her bag.
May you like
"Every video file, every audio recording, every forged signature transcript, and every financial wire record tracing Marcus Vance’s bribe money to the county clerk's personal offshore account," I answered, tapping my encrypted hard drive. "If Marcus tries any legal gymnastics today, we drop the entire package directly to the state attorney general and publish it simultaneously across every major media network."
Sarah smiled sharply. "Then let's go audit some corrupt developers."
