Chapter 4: Anatomy of a Scumbag

The manila envelope arrived exactly 48 hours later, slipped under Liam's office door sometime between midnight and dawn like a shadow given substance. No return address, no postmark—just his name written in block letters that revealed nothing about their author.

Liam found it when he arrived at his downtown architecture firm at 6:30 AM, two hours before his staff would begin filtering in. The building was silent except for the hum of fluorescent lights and the distant whisper of early morning traffic. He'd been coming in early all week, needing the sanctuary of precise blueprints and calculated angles while his personal life dissolved into chaos.

The envelope was thick, substantial. Professional.

He carried it to his private office, past the drafting tables and computer workstations where his team would soon be designing other people's dreams. His corner office offered a panoramic view of Portland's skyline—glass and steel monuments to human ambition reaching toward a gray Pacific Northwest sky.

Liam closed the door, drew the blinds, and opened the envelope.

The first photograph made his breath catch: Chloe and Damian Thorne in the lobby of the Nines hotel, her hand resting possessively on his arm while he leaned down to whisper something in her ear. The timestamp showed Thursday, 2:47 PM—yesterday, while Liam had been in a client meeting discussing the structural integrity of a new hospital wing.

The images that followed documented a betrayal with forensic thoroughness. Chloe and Damian entering the elevator. Damian's hand on the small of her back as they walked down the hallway. A long-lens shot through the penthouse suite's window—bodies entwined on Egyptian cotton sheets, faces flushed with passion that had never existed in Liam's own bedroom.

But the photographs were just the opening act.

The dossier that followed was a masterpiece of intelligence gathering, a complete dissection of Damian Thorne's life laid out with surgical precision. Silas had delivered more than surveillance—he'd provided a blueprint for total destruction.

SUBJECT: Damian Marcus Thorne AGE: 37 OCCUPATION: Vice President of Sales, Alistair Corporation ANNUAL SALARY: $180,000 base, $50,000-120,000 variable compensation NET WORTH: -$340,000 (excluding assets owned by spouse)

The negative net worth caught Liam's attention immediately. A man earning over $200,000 annually shouldn't be drowning in debt, but the financial records told a story of spectacular mismanagement. Credit cards maxed at their limits, a Porsche lease that consumed nearly a quarter of his take-home pay, membership fees for exclusive clubs that existed purely for networking and ego.

PERSONAL ASSETS: - 2023 Porsche 911 Carrera (leased) - Omega Seamaster watch ($8,500, financed) - Designer wardrobe (estimated $25,000, various credit accounts) - Country club memberships: $15,000 annually

LIABILITIES: - Credit card debt: $78,000 across six accounts - Personal loan (father-in-law): $50,000 - Gambling debts (estimated): $25,000-40,000 - Back taxes: $12,000

The gambling revelation made Liam pause. Silas had included receipts from three different casinos, showing a pattern of increasingly desperate betting across the past eighteen months. Weekend trips to Las Vegas charged to corporate accounts as "client entertainment." Poker games in private clubs where the stakes started at $1,000 per hand.

But it was the employment history that revealed the true scope of Damian's vulnerability:

CAREER PROGRESSION: 2018: Sales Associate, Hartwell Industries - Terminated (expense account irregularities) 2019-2020: Regional Manager, Pacific Development - Terminated (performance issues) 2021: Unemployed (6 months) 2021-Present: VP Sales, Alistair Corporation (hired 3 months after marriage to Isabella Alistair)

The pattern was unmistakable. Damian Thorne was a man whose career existed entirely at the pleasure of his father-in-law. Without the Alistair name and Marcus Alistair's protection, he was unemployable in his own industry.

The personal information section read like a psychological profile:

BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS: - Chronic overspending to maintain lifestyle beyond means - Pattern of workplace terminations related to ethical violations - Compulsive gambling, typically triggered by work stress - Multiple extramarital relationships (documented: 3 concurrent affairs) - Cocaine use (recreational, weekends, estimated $500/month)

Three concurrent affairs. Liam felt a cold satisfaction that Chloe wasn't even Damian's only betrayal—she was simply one of several women being deceived by a man who collected lies like other people collected art.

The surveillance notes from the past week painted a picture of breathtaking arrogance:

March 19: Subject met with Isabella Alistair for lunch at Le Pigeon. Spent 45 minutes discussing charity fundraiser while texting other woman under table. Left restaurant to meet Chloe Sterling at downtown hotel.

March 20: Subject attended Marcus Alistair's birthday dinner at family estate. Publicly praised Isabella's "devotion and understanding" in toast. Privately arranged cocaine delivery to downtown apartment for weekend party.

March 21: Subject used corporate credit card to purchase $2,400 diamond bracelet. Delivery address: apartment maintained for extramarital activities. Same evening, told Isabella he was working late on "important client proposal."

But it was the final section that made Liam's pulse quicken—a detailed analysis of Marcus Alistair himself:

MARCUS ALISTAIR - RELEVANT BACKGROUND: AGE: 68 NET WORTH: $2.8 billion (estimated) PERSONALITY PROFILE: Extremely low tolerance for weakness, disloyalty, or behavior that threatens family reputation. Known for permanently severing relationships with associates who betray his trust. History of using legal and financial resources to destroy individuals who cross him.

RECENT STATEMENTS (from corporate interviews): "I built this company by identifying weakness and eliminating it before it could spread." "Family is everything. Anyone who threatens my family threatens everything I've built." "I don't believe in second chances when it comes to betrayal."

Silas had attached newspaper clippings documenting Marcus Alistair's previous responses to betrayal: business partners destroyed through strategic lawsuits, competitors driven into bankruptcy through coordinated market manipulation, even a nephew who'd embezzled company funds and found himself facing federal charges after Marcus's "full cooperation" with law enforcement.

The man didn't just fire people who crossed him—he erased them.

The final page contained a single handwritten note in Silas's precise script:

Mr. Sterling—

Subject represents a perfect storm of vulnerability: financial desperation, career dependency, and behavioral patterns that would horrify his patron. Marcus Alistair values loyalty above all else and has repeatedly demonstrated willingness to use extreme measures against those who betray family trust.

Recommend immediate action while subject maintains false sense of security. Window of opportunity will not remain open indefinitely.

Documentation package includes video surveillance, financial records, and contact information for Isabella Alistair's personal assistant.

The foundation is compromised. The building will fall with minimal pressure applied to the correct structural points.

- S.V.

Liam spread the photographs across his desk like blueprints, studying each image with the same analytical precision he brought to architectural drawings. Here was Damian's hand on Chloe's thigh in the hotel bar. There was Chloe laughing at something he'd whispered, her wedding ring catching the light like a small beacon of hypocrisy.

But beyond the personal betrayal, he saw something else: an opportunity for perfect, surgical justice.

Damian Thorne had built his entire life on a foundation of lies—lies to his wife, lies to his father-in-law, lies to himself about his own competence and worth. He was a man living beyond his means in every possible way, supported entirely by the goodwill of someone who despised the very weaknesses Damian embodied.

Marcus Alistair didn't know he was subsidizing his son-in-law's cocaine habit, his gambling debts, his stable of mistresses, or his complete contempt for the daughter Marcus clearly cherished.

But he could learn.

Liam pulled out his phone and scrolled to Isabella Alistair's assistant's contact information. According to Silas's notes, she was fiercely loyal to her employer and had direct access to Marcus Alistair's calendar.

A meeting could be arranged. Information could be shared. Truth could be delivered with the precision of a surgical strike.

He thought of his parents' messy divorce, the years of litigation and bitterness that had poisoned everyone involved. This would be different. Clean, efficient, final.

Damian Thorne had chosen to build his life on lies and betrayal. Now he would discover what happened when the foundation was removed from beneath a structure that had never been built to stand on its own.

Liam began drafting his first message, choosing each word with the same care he used to calculate load-bearing requirements.

Some demolitions required explosives and heavy machinery.

Others required only the precise application of truth to the right person at the right moment.

The invisible monster was about to become very visible indeed.