After I Gave Birth to His Fifth Child, My Husband Declared Our Son a "Piece of the Puzzle" — Then the Lawsuits Started Coming
The phone rang just as I was getting my daughters ready for school. It was Daniel, his voice tight with barely suppressed anger.
“Evie, I’ve got a problem,” he said, cutting straight to it. “A big one.”
“What is it?” I asked, my heart immediately leaping to the worst conclusions. More legal papers? Another attack?
“My servers,” he explained, “at the startup. They were hit with a massive DDoS attack overnight. Everything’s down. Our main project, the client data, everything.”
A DDoS attack. I knew enough about tech from Daniel to understand the severity. It wasn’t just a bug; it was a malicious, targeted assault designed to overwhelm and disable a system.
“Who would do that?” I asked, pulling my eldest daughter’s hair into a quick braid.
“I have a pretty good idea,” Daniel replied, his voice laced with venom. “I’ve already run preliminary traces on the attack’s origin. The IP addresses are masked, bouncing through a sophisticated network of proxies. But there’s a pattern, a signature I’ve seen before in reports on corporate espionage tactics.”
He paused, then delivered the chilling conclusion.
“And one of those shell companies, the one the attack bounced through just before hitting my servers, is known to have links to a larger holding group. A holding group that has… past dealings with Caldwell Holdings. Or rather, with *Marcus*.”
My breath caught. It was a direct, undeniable threat. Marcus wasn’t just fighting me; he was attacking my brother, my only real support system, in a bid to cripple him and cut me off entirely. This was a deliberate, personal strike at Daniel’s livelihood, a mundane but devastating cruelty that directly impacted his dreams and his ability to help me.
“He’s trying to cut off my help,” I murmured, the realization a cold knot in my stomach.
“Exactly,” Daniel confirmed. “It’s a warning, Evie. A very clear, very expensive warning. And it gets worse. I just got off the phone with our lead investor. They’re suddenly getting ‘cold feet’ about our next funding round, citing ‘unforeseen market instability’ and ‘concerns about our long-term viability’.”
He didn’t need to spell it out. The DDoS attack and the investor withdrawal, happening almost simultaneously, were no coincidence. Marcus was using his vast resources and connections to not only sabotage Daniel’s startup but also to poison his professional reputation.
“They’re not just pulling out,” Daniel stated, “they’re actively trying to tank my company. This will cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more. Years of work, Evie. Years.”
His voice was raw with frustration and a quiet fury. I pictured his small, dedicated team, working tirelessly in their cramped office, and felt a surge of righteous anger. Marcus wasn’t just an antagonist; he was a corporate bully, using his power to crush anyone who stood in his way.
“This is completely illegal, Daniel,” I said, my voice shaking with indignation. “Can’t we report it? Go to the police?”
“DDoS attacks are notoriously hard to prosecute, especially when the attacker is as well-resourced and careful as Marcus,” Daniel explained, a hint of weariness in his voice. “And proving he orchestrated the investor pullback? That’s even harder. It’s all deniable, all plausible deniability. He’ll just say it’s ‘market forces’ or ‘unrelated business risks’.”
He sighed heavily.
“He wants me to back off, Evie. He wants me out of the picture. He wants you completely isolated.”
The irony was not lost on me. Marcus had successfully frozen my finances, cut off my access to our shared life, and now he was trying to do the same to Daniel. He was systematically dismantling every pillar of support I had.
“What about your clients?” I asked, thinking of the people who relied on Daniel’s startup.
“They’re panicking,” he admitted. “We’re scrambling to get backup servers online, but the damage is done. The trust is broken. Some are already pulling their contracts. This could be enough to sink us.”
The casual destruction of Daniel’s livelihood, his passion project, was a specific, gut-wrenching cruelty. It wasn’t about a grand corporate betrayal, but about the mundane reality of rent, payroll, and a dream turning to dust. Marcus wasn’t just a corporate villain; he was a deeply personal one, destroying lives with cold, calculated precision.
“Please, Daniel, don’t stop,” I pleaded, tears pricking at my eyes. “Don’t let him win this way. If he can do this to you, he can do anything.”
“I won’t stop,” Daniel affirmed, his voice resolute. “But it means I’ll have to go underground for a bit, secure my operations. I can’t risk him tracing my new activity if I’m still actively investigating him. It’s a huge setback, but I’ll find a way.”
The connection was unstable, a cruel reminder of the attack.
“I’m going to set up a new, secure system, completely off-grid. It’ll take some time to rebuild, but I’ll continue the investigation from there. I have some backups, thankfully. It won’t be easy, but I’m not giving up on you, Evie.”
His defiance, despite the personal cost, was a small beacon of hope in the encroaching darkness. Marcus had intended to intimidate Daniel into submission, to paralyze him with fear and financial ruin. Instead, he had only hardened his resolve.
But the cost was immense. Daniel’s startup, his lifeblood, was now under siege. This wasn’t just business; it was personal. Marcus wasn’t just protecting his corporate interests; he was systematically dismantling the lives of anyone who dared to stand in his way. And that made him far more dangerous than I had ever imagined. The pressure was building, turning every aspect of my life, and Daniel’s, into a desperate struggle for survival.
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