Her father refused, claiming the documents were too old to matter."Those files are decades old," her father said, not looking up from his desk, his pen still moving across a quarterly report. "They have nothing to do with your divorce or anything else going on in this company. I don't see the purpose of digging through them now.""The purpose," Natalie said, "is that Joshua clearly already knows something about them, and I'd rather not be the last person in this family to understand what."Natalie reminded him that he had spent years criticizing her decisions, yet he was now hiding information that could affect her future."You've spent years criticizing every decision I've made," Natalie said, crossing her arms, her voice rising. "Every choice, every misstep, you've had an opinion about all of it. And now, the one time I actually ask for something that could affect my own future, you suddenly decide it's none of my business to know."When her mother accused her of dragging Joshua's

A plain envelope arrived at Galaxy's headquarters that same evening, delivered to the front desk with no sender listed, no tracking number, nothing at all but Joshua's name typed neatly across the front in plain block letters. This time, a short message accompanied it: "Ask the Harrisons what happened inside that building." Joshua opened it alone in his office, the late hour leaving the floor empty around him. The same photograph stared back at him, his father standing outside the Ashford Street building beneath a streetlamp, and beneath it, a single typed line: Ask the Harrisons what happened inside that building. Joshua compared the photograph with the information from the previous meeting and confirmed that the building once belonged to Harrison Group. He pulled Harrison Group's old property filings beside the photograph on his desk, matching the facade stone for stone, the engraved nameplate, the exact angle of the entrance. Confirmed, Joshua thought grimly. The building be

Three families, one transaction, and nobody left alive who'll explain why, Joshua thought, studying the gaps in the paperwork. I won't accuse any of them, not Peter's father, not mine, not the Harrisons, until I know which side of this they were actually standing on.He instructed everyone to continue investigating independently and keep the discoveries private."Keep investigating separately," Joshua said. "And keep what we've found between the people in this room. If this reaches the wrong ears too soon, we lose whatever advantage we still have."Natalie, meanwhile, refused to obey her father's warning.She returned to the archive the following afternoon despite his explicit order, slipping past the front desk with a company badge she still technically held.She returned to the archive and discovered that someone had requested access to the same records only days before she began investigating."I need to see the access log for this file," Natalie told the archive manager, sliding t

Joshua moved quickly after learning that someone planned to purchase the old Harrison property before he could uncover its secrets."I'm entering the bidding myself," Joshua told Monica, pulling up the property's auction listing. "Legally, quietly. No reason given beyond market interest."He entered the public bidding, determined to secure the building legally without revealing why it mattered to him."Harrison's board posted it as an open sale," Monica confirmed. "Anyone with capital can bid. Just keep it looking like an ordinary acquisition."However, he soon discovered that he had a serious rival.The auction hall filled quickly the next afternoon, the Ashford Street sale drawing far more attention than an abandoned property should have warranted.Ricky Jackson, a wealthy industrialist known for humiliating competitors, arrived with an army of lawyers and financial advisers.A procession of men in dark suits filed in behind a heavyset man with silver hair and an expensive watch fla

Within hours, Ricky's financial position deteriorated further."Sir," his financial director reported over the phone, "two of your primary lenders are now demanding additional guarantees before they'll release the remaining credit."His lenders demanded additional guarantees, and his partners began questioning whether he could complete the property purchase."Can you even close this deal?" one longtime business partner asked bluntly, his earlier enthusiasm gone entirely. "Because what I'm hearing doesn't sound like a man who's in control of his own purchase anymore."Several businessmen who celebrated his victory earlier suddenly stopped answering his calls.Ricky dialed three men who'd toasted him the night before. All three calls went to voicemail.Furious and humiliated, Ricky summoned Joshua to a private club where influential businessmen had gathered for a scheduled dinner."Get Joshua Hart here," Ricky snapped at his assistant. "Tonight. The club. I don't care how you word the i