Chapter 672: Disappearance

Chapter 672: Disappearance

Chloe showing up at the Bennett family again didn't surprise Paisley. She'd figured Chloe would come to confront her sooner or later. She'd already known who Chloe really was — the head of Heaven's Gate. Given Chloe's power and status, there was no way she'd just let it slide after seeing her man holding another woman.

But right now, Paisley couldn't quite read what Chloe was thinking.

"Nothing major." Chloe's voice was flat. "I'm just here to tell you — from now on, you'd better do everything you can to support Larry. I can keep you in that Bennett family patriarch seat, and I can just as easily pull you out of it."

With that, she stood up and headed for the door. She stopped just before stepping out, turned around, and fixed Paisley with a cold stare. "And stop trying to seduce my husband. You'll end up with nothing — not him, not anything else."

Then she walked out without looking back.

Paisley stayed where she was, watching Chloe leave, her expression slowly turning serious. She'd already suspected that the person secretly helping her was Chloe — and that Chloe might even be the leader of Heaven's Gate — but that had just been a guess with nothing to back it up. Hearing Chloe say it out loud herself was a different thing entirely, and it didn't sit well with her.

The first time she'd heard about Chloe from Larry, Chloe had been a gentle, fragile woman — someone who'd been disfigured saving Larry's life, who'd been through hell and taken hit after hit. Even after getting her looks back, she'd faced one disaster after another, and had nearly been violated more than once.

Yet in just a few months, Chloe had grown into something terrifying — one of the top fighters in the entire supernatural martial world. Standing against Chloe now, Paisley had no edge whatsoever. Trying to take Larry from her felt nearly impossible. Not that Paisley personally had anything against the idea of multiple women sharing one man — that kind of arrangement fit naturally within her traditional worldview. But Chloe had grown up in the modern world, shaped by the idea of monogamy. She would never accept anything less.

"What a headache." Paisley rubbed her temples.

Chloe had grown so fast that she'd completely outpaced Paisley in every way. If Chloe hadn't been working behind the scenes, Paisley never would have held onto the Bennett family patriarch position in the first place.

"I guess raw power really does solve everything," Paisley said with a long, heavy sigh.

Meanwhile, Larry was trying to reach Melanie — but her number came back as disconnected.

Larry frowned. "How is it disconnected? Did something happen to her?"

He double-checked the number. It matched exactly what he had saved in his phone. That only made his expression darker. He figured that while the Ward family head was being arrested and he was away from Aurora Citadel, something must have gone wrong. There was no other reason for Melanie to just vanish like this.

He went straight to the apartment Melanie had been renting, only to find it completely empty.

He tracked down the landlord, who thought it over and said, "That mother and daughter you're asking about — they moved out before the new year. Seemed like someone was giving them trouble."

That confirmed what Larry had suspected. While the Ward family head was being taken down and he was up at Heavenly Mountain, someone had still been going after Melanie and her mother.

"What kind of technology did her stepfather's company develop that's got this many people after it?" Larry wondered, then quickly made his way to military headquarters.

At the military base, in the office of the supreme commander —

Frank pushed open the door. "Boss, you called me in a hurry — what's going on?"

"Frank, I need you to dig into BlueTech Corporation right away. I want to know what they actually do, and everything there is to know about the founder, Eugene."

The military had looked into the company's bankruptcy before, but only at the financial level. The real story was that BlueTech had been forcibly swallowed up by the Ward family and driven into bankruptcy after developing some kind of groundbreaking technology. The founder, Eugene, had disappeared right after. But given how the Ward family had kept going after Melanie and her mother, Eugene was probably still alive somewhere — lying low and holding onto the core technical data.

"Got it. I'm on it." Frank nodded and left the office quickly.

Frank used the highest-level clearance of the Legion of Flame Surge to run a full search on BlueTech Corporation. Larry stayed in the building and waited. Two hours passed.

When Frank came back, he was carrying an encrypted file. He handed it to Larry. "Boss, this is everything — the full classified records on BlueTech and its founder."

"Good." Larry took the file and nodded. "Frank, I need you to look into someone else too."

"Who?" Frank asked.

"Melanie — Old Kai's daughter. Her stepfather is Eugene. After BlueTech went under and Eugene went into hiding with the data, multiple parties started targeting Melanie and her mother. Now she's gone dark."

"On it — I'll start tracking her right now." When Frank heard it was a martyr's family member, his expression shifted immediately. Old Kai had given his life for Southwild. His family couldn't be allowed to come to any harm.

Larry opened the file. BlueTech Corporation was a high-end semiconductor company focused on next-generation mobile chip development, founded ten years ago. Eugene had been the chief architect at a top phone brand before leaving to start the company. It had turned a solid profit over the years, but Eugene had poured everything back into cutting-edge research.

The public information was thin. Just reading the report, Larry still couldn't figure out what made the chip technology so valuable that it had drawn this many predators. It clearly had something to do with foundational chip architecture — but Larry knew nothing about communications technology.

"I need someone in the industry who can break this down," he muttered.

Whoever else might be in the dark, Brad — the one who'd led the takeover — definitely knew exactly what was going on. Larry left the office building and headed straight to the military's maximum-security prison.

It was a classified facility for high-risk inmates — the same place Alden had been held before. Security was tight, with checkpoints everywhere.

When the soldiers on duty saw Larry coming, they snapped to attention. "Supreme Commander!"

Larry waved them off. "At ease. Bring Brad in for questioning."

"Yes, sir!" The officer in charge stepped forward and unlocked the outer iron door.

After what happened with Alden, the prison's security systems had been completely overhauled. On top of the physical iron doors, they'd added multiple high-strength combination locks and biometric gene scanners. The blast resistance was rated to withstand heavy artillery.

Several security chiefs stepped forward one by one for code verification and palm print identification. Larry passed through several sealed isolation doors before finally reaching the inner cell block.

The cell block was dark and damp. Mutant rats squealed in the corners, scattering in a panic as Larry's steady footsteps drew closer.

Led by a guard, Larry stopped in front of the reinforced cell holding Brad. Brad had been curled up on a mat, but the sound of footsteps made him bolt upright. The moment he saw it was Larry, his face twisted with rage and he scrambled to the iron bars.

He grabbed the alloy door with both hands and screamed, "Larry! You piece of trash — let me out right now! Or I'll wipe out your entire family!"