Chapter 76
On the other side, in the Maybach.
Reginald leaned back in the rear seat. His assistant in the front pulled a document from his briefcase, turned around, and handed it over. "Mr. Lancaster, this is the preparation plan for the technology competition. The PR department is ready. They're just waiting for your signature."
Reginald took it and flipped through it, reading each page carefully—more carefully than he'd ever read contracts worth hundreds of millions.
The assistant glanced at his boss's expression in the rearview mirror and couldn't help but smile. "Mr. Lancaster, it's rare to see you take such interest in a tech competition. In the past, you wouldn't even ask about projects like this."
Reginald closed the document, his gaze settling on the view outside the window. "She just took over the company and already uncovered so many problems. Ridgeway Tech is riddled with holes from top to bottom. She can catch one, ten, a hundred on her own. But she can't do everything by herself. She needs a tech team she can trust."
His voice was quiet, almost like he was talking to himself. "Keep an eye on this competition for her. Anyone with real talent—bring them in, no matter the cost."
The assistant froze for a moment, then lowered his head and jotted down a line in his notes.
After finishing, he picked up his phone and sent every word he'd just heard to Hayden's personal assistant, verbatim.
At the Lancaster Estate, Hayden wore a pair of reading glasses and held the phone his assistant handed him at arm's length, squinting as he read for a while.
Then he set the phone down, removed his glasses, and leaned back in his chair. The lines on his face smoothed out one by one. "This boy—he used to care about nothing but work. Now he's learning to look out for someone else."
He picked up his teacup, took a sip, then set it down. The smile at the corner of his mouth refused to fade. He turned to the butler and said, "I've made up my mind about this granddaughter-in-law. Tell him to pick up the pace. Marry her already. Stop just dropping her off and picking her up from work every day. That's not romantic at all."
"Understood." The assistant quickly responded, unable to suppress his own smile.
The night was thick as ink. Lucinda returned to her room. The moment she closed the door, her phone buzzed.
It was Tamsin calling, her voice laced with suppressed anger.
"Lucinda, the thing you asked me to look into—I've got a lead." She paused, then her voice dropped lower. "That fire at the airport years ago—it was definitely orchestrated. Someone used the chaos to take you away."
Lucinda stood by the window, her eyes deep and unreadable. "Keep digging. Find whoever's behind it."
"Got it."
The next morning, the Maybach was parked outside the Douglas Estate as usual.
The moment Lucinda got in the car, Reginald handed her a cup of milk, perfectly warmed.
Her gaze landed on a document spread across the center console. The Lancaster Group logo was printed on the cover, with a few words beside it: Technology Competition Shortlist (Preliminary Review).
She didn't ask. She never interfered with his work.
The car stopped in front of Ridgeway Tech. Lucinda got out and headed toward the building.
The moment she passed through the revolving door, the atmosphere in the lobby made her brow furrow slightly.
Several receptionists kept their heads down, pretending to be busy. Security guards stood by the elevators, their expressions grim.
Footsteps echoed from the far end of the hallway—dress shoes clicking against the marble floor, unhurried, deliberate, dragging out an air of leisure.
Lucinda looked up. Joseph emerged from around the corner, his suit perfectly pressed, his hair freshly styled, his jaw clean-shaven. He looked completely refreshed.
Lucinda raised an eyebrow.
Joseph had gotten out of custody that quickly.
He stopped in front of Lucinda, a smug smile plastered across his face. "Ms. Wipere, good morning."
His voice was neither too loud nor too soft, but it grated on the ears. "I told you I'd be back soon. And look—here I am."
He leaned forward slightly, his gaze brimming with undisguised provocation. "You went to all that trouble—recordings, police reports—and in the end, what can you do to me?"
Lucinda's gaze was calm. She looked him over from head to toe, then her lips curved slightly.
The smile was faint, but Joseph's own smile froze for a moment.
He'd seen that expression before—the day his brother-in-law was taken away. Lucinda had stood at the office door, her mouth curving just like that. And then every hidden thread he'd buried was severed.
"Just wait." Lucinda said it, then walked past him and headed straight for the elevator.
As the elevator doors closed, she saw Joseph still standing in place. The smile had vanished from his face. His gaze was dark, fixed on her direction.
The elevator reached her floor. Lucinda headed toward her office. As she passed the break room, her footsteps suddenly paused.
A soft sound of sobbing came from inside.
Lucinda turned and glanced through the crack in the door.
In the corner of the break room, a young woman crouched on the floor.
It was Gaia.
Lucinda pushed the door open and walked in.
Gaia looked up sharply at the sound.
Seeing Lucinda, she quickly wiped her face with the back of her hand. "Ms. Wipere… I'm sorry. I'm fine. It's just—"
"Why are you crying?" Lucinda's voice was calm.
Gaia lowered her head, her hands twisting together in front of her. "It's something at home. Ms. Wipere, I'm sorry for troubling you. I promise it won't affect my work—"
"Gaia." Lucinda cut her off, her tone steady. "Tell me."
Gaia looked up at Lucinda. Tears welled up again.
This time, she didn't try to hold them back. She poured everything out.
She had once been a young lady from a well-off family.
Her grandfather had started from nothing and built a trading company that became a well-known name in Seaside City.
Her father, Beau Fisher, was someone her grandfather had personally groomed. Back then, he was just a poor student from the countryside who'd managed to get into college. He pursued her mother, Qiana Fisher, relentlessly, and eventually became part of the Fisher family.
After the marriage, her grandfather taught him the business hand in hand, gradually entrusting the company to him.
During those years, in front of her grandfather, he was always the respectful, hardworking, ideal son-in-law.
But the second year after her grandfather passed away, everything changed.
He brought another woman into their home—along with her two children. A boy one year older than Gaia, and a girl the same age.
Later, Gaia learned from an old servant that her father had had another family all along.
For years, he'd played the role of the perfect son-in-law and father in the Fisher household while simultaneously being another woman's husband and another set of children's father in a second home.
And her mother—a woman raised in privilege her entire life—could do nothing but cry when the truth came out.
She and her mother were kicked out of the house they'd lived in for twenty years.
Beau gave them a sum of money. Not much, not little. Just enough to rent a small place and eat for a few years.
The company shares, properties, savings—he kept everything. Her mother didn't even have the strength to fight back.
Gaia told her mother to let it go. As long as the two of them were safe, that was all that mattered.
But those people never planned to leave them alone.