I lean back against the chair, my grip tightening slightly around the phone as I replay the events.
“Camden went digging through clinic records,” I say, my jaw tightening, “pulled files I thought I had buried for her, and handed them over.”
I pause for half a second. “They didn’t verify anything. They just… used it.”
Deacon’s voice cuts in. “Publicly?”
“Yes.”
Rhys mutters something under his breath that I don’t quite catch, and Deacon goes quiet for a second before responding.
“Interesting,” he says, and his tone drops just enough that it stops sounding like commentary and starts sounding like intent.
That one word is enough.
It means he’s already sorting through leverage, deciding which threads to pull first.
“What do you need?” Rhys asks. He can already see where this is going.
I pull up the files, opening windows and lining everything up in front of me.
“I want everything.”
There’s a short pause on the line.
“Define everything,” Rhys says.
“Financials,” I say, already thinking through where those records sit and who has access. “Client conflicts. Settlement manipulation. Any case they’ve buried, any deal they’ve pushed through that doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.”
I pull open another file, scanning it quickly, my focus narrowing as the pieces start to fall into place.Who can we use in their firm to get these records? Someone in the courthouse?
“Anything that gives me leverage,” I finish. “Anything that puts them in a position where they don’t get to pretend this was acceptable.”
Deacon lets out a low whistle. “You’re not planning a conversation.”
“No.”
There’s no reason in pretending I’m interested in resolution.
Rhys exhales again, slower this time. “Jeez.”
“They wanted to question my judgment,” I continue. “Now we’re going to question theirs.”
Deacon chuckles again. “I like this plan.”
“Good.” Because this is the part most people misunderstand.
The IOU network is not a collection of favors.
It is a map.
Every person inside it sits somewhere in a chain of leverage. Information flows through it constantly.
A clerk who owes a favor sends a document.
A banker who needed help once flags a transaction.
A registrar who didn’t want a scandal quietly opens a file.
