Proof of Stake

Marcus Hale finally has everything back. A daughter who trusts him again. A fortune properly recovered. A life rebuilt from ten stolen years. Then Walter Griggs slides a folder across a diner table and tells him none of it was actually an accident. Seven names. Seven early cryptocurrency holders, quietly targeted and deliberately incapacitated by someone patient enough to wait years for a fortune to mature. Marcus survived his "accident" because he was worth waiting for. Not everyone on the list was so fortunate. As Marcus and his daughter Ivy dig deeper, the danger stops being historical. Surveillance. Threats. An offer to simply disappear, in exchange for looking away. And behind it all, a patient, calculating architect who has been watching Marcus's entire recovery - his reconciliation, his new love, his hard-won peace - as nothing more than an investment timeline. Marcus has already proven what he's capable of building. Now he has to prove something harder: what he's actually willing to risk to protect it - and to make sure no one else's family suffers the way his almost did. Proof of Stake is a story about the price of justice, the weight of genuine courage, and what happens when the people you love become the thing worth risking everything for.