"Joshua," Victoria said, calling him that same evening, "I traced a transfer connected to Richard's network back to a company linked to your family."She wanted to compare their evidence, but Joshua gave her only part of what he knew."I'd like to compare what we've each found," Victoria continued. "I'm guessing you have more pieces than I do."Joshua considered the request carefully. "The transfer you found connects to an old holding company," he said finally. "That's accurate. I don't have much more than that to add right now."Victoria immediately realized he was hiding something."That's not everything you know," Victoria said flatly. "I can hear it.""It's everything I'm prepared to share tonight," Joshua said.Instead of pressing him, she decided to investigate the financial trail herself, determined to discover what Joshua was keeping from her."Fine," Victoria said, her tone cooling. "Then I'll find the rest myself."She ended the call without waiting for a reply, already pull

Joshua immediately used the discovery to set a trap."Monica," Joshua said, calling her into his study, "I want to leak something. Carefully."He allowed selected information about the foundation and his father's investigation to leak through a channel he knew Damien's people were monitoring."Route this through the channel we know Damien's people are watching," Joshua instructed, sliding a prepared document across the desk. "Partial information. Enough to be tempting."He made it appear as though he had discovered the location of an important financial record."Make it look like I've found the location of a significant financial record connected to the foundation," Joshua continued. "Something worth moving for."Within hours, someone took the bait.By midnight, Monica returned with a report. "Joshua, someone's already moving. Fast."Joshua tracked the movement and followed it to a private meeting place where one of the hidden network's senior figures was expected to appear."Where,"

The fighting tapered off as quickly as it had started, Joshua's trained men overwhelming the remaining attackers one by one, pinning the last of them to the floor.Joshua ordered every exit sealed and instructed his people to search the building for communication equipment, documents, and anything that could reveal who arranged the meeting."Seal every exit," Joshua said, straightening. "Search the building. I want communication devices, documents, anything that tells us who arranged this."One captured man laughed and told Joshua that he was only alive because the people behind the organization wanted him alive.One of the restrained men, blood trickling from a cut above his eyebrow, let out a short, humorless laugh. "You know the only reason you're still breathing is because they want you alive. Don't flatter yourself thinking you walked out of here on your own strength."The man continued mocking Joshua, claiming that powerful people could destroy everything he built whenever they

Monica worked through the night in Galaxy's security office, running the phone through decryption software, line by line.Most of the information was encrypted, but she found a recently deleted location that pointed toward a property near one of Galaxy's expansion zones."Most of it's locked tight," she reported to Joshua the next morning, "but I recovered one deleted location. Recent. It points to a property near your northern expansion zone."The discovery suggested the attackers were not only watching Joshua's family.They were also moving into his business territory."They're not just watching your family anymore," Monica said grimly. "They're moving into your business territory."Victoria reached a similar conclusion from another direction.That same morning, Victoria called Joshua directly, her voice carrying the edge of someone who had been awake far too long.While studying property transactions around Galaxy's expansion area, she discovered that several small companies had qu

The room went quiet instantly, Natalie's mother's mouth tightening into a thin, bloodless line, her father's jaw working uselessly without producing a single sound.Natalie's parents became embarrassed because they could not deny how differently they treated him back then.Neither of them offered a rebuttal. Both knew, without needing to say it aloud in front of the lawyers, that every word Joshua had spoken carried the weight of simple, undeniable truth.Natalie tried to stop the discussion from becoming personal, but her father made a careless mistake."Let's keep this focused on the documents," Natalie said quickly, glancing nervously between Joshua and her father, sensing the room tilting somewhere she couldn't control. "We don't need to relitigate the past."While defending the Harrison family, he mentioned an old Harrison business record and revealed details that matched the photograph Joshua recently received."I'm simply saying," her father pressed on, ignoring her entirely, h