Family on Their Knees Heart Turned to Ice novel Chapter 124

After hearing the plan, Hannah's eyes glinted as she nodded. “Don't worry, Bella. Leave it to me. I’ll make sure it’s done perfectly.”

Bella offered a faint smile, but it vanished as quickly as it appeared.

“If she keeps getting her way, we'll have no ground to stand on.”

Hannah understood. “I get it. We’re close, and she doesn’t like me either. If she finds a way to get back in the Mercer family's good graces, I'll have even less of a chance to be with Brandon. Don't worry, Bella, we’re on the same side, always.

“We can only thrive when Lillian is miserable.”

Bella had to put on a front with others, but with Hannah, there was no need for pretense.

The reason she could act so calm, composed, and seemingly unbothered by Lillian was because Lillian had looked so pathetic after being released from prison.

Bella was confident she had everything under control. Lillian’s own family was on her side.

Lillian’s marriage was on the rocks, a mere facade.

Even Lillian's own son wanted her as his mother and refused to have anything to do with Lillian.

Everything that once belonged to Lillian was now within Bella’s control. With Lillian having nothing, Bella could naturally afford to be magnanimous and indifferent.

But now, it seemed Lillian was slowly acquiring things, things that were starting to capture Sebastian’s attention.

And that was something Bella could not ignore.

After Hannah left her office, Bella went back to Sebastian's.

Sebastian only snapped out of his thoughts when she knocked.

“What is it?”

Bella said, “You’ve probably seen the news today. It looks like if we want to find this ‘Li,’ we’ll have to go through Lillian.

“I never would have guessed Lillian had this kind of influence.

“Did you see the messages in the group chat? It's a chorus of complaints. The Victor that so many people failed to recruit just waltzed right into Lillian's company.”

Bella did her best to keep her tone free of any negativity, framing it as simple praise for Lillian's impressive feat.

“How could Lillian possibly know Victor? The more I think about it, the more I believe this has to be Nathan’s doing.”

Bella looked at Sebastian, surprised, but quickly caught on. “Mr. Cole?”

Sebastian elaborated, “Think about it. Who else could it be? He helped her start the company. I’ve already looked into it. Lillian’s company has three initial shareholders. One is still unknown, but another one is Nathan.

“The third shareholder was probably brought in by Nathan as well.

“The office building her company is using now was also purchased by Nathan and then gifted to Lillian.

If it did, her mother’s lifelong plan...

Bella dared not think further. She went along with Sebastian’s line of reasoning and nodded. “Yes, that makes sense. In that case, our original plan has fallen through.”

They had initially planned to simply poach the forum's tech legend with a higher salary, no matter which company he joined.

But now, how could they possibly do that?

How could they poach someone who couldn’t be tempted out of retirement by anyone else?

Their idea of using him to find Li was likely a dead end too.

Bella looked slightly disappointed, but Sebastian remained calm and composed.

“If he’s willing to come out of retirement, it doesn’t mean he can’t be poached. Even if we can’t get him to join our company, we can still try to make contact. We might be able to reach Li through him.

“Forget about Nathan. He seems determined not to let us get an introduction to Li through him.”

Bella nodded. “Okay, I’ll try to figure out a way. Maybe I can arrange a meeting with this Mr. Knight first.”

Sebastian agreed. “Yes, you’re both in the same field, so you might have a lot to talk about. You’re the lead technician at our company; perhaps he’ll be interested in the projects you’re working on.”

Reassured by Sebastian, Bella’s confidence grew. “Alright, I’ll be in charge of finding a way to connect with him.”