She Was the Treasure All Along novel Chapter 70

Her thin fingers clutched Byron’s white coat as a rasping sound came out of her throat. “Loyce is a Lonsdale. Loyce is the Lonsdale family’s eldest daughter.”

Byron frowned. After a long pause, he said, “I’ve always felt Loyce was hiding something. But the medicine she gave Hamilton and you—it started years ago. If she really were the Lonsdales’ eldest daughter, they would’ve found her long ago. There’s no way they’d let her stay with us until now.”

Adele forced herself to breathe, to think. “If she isn’t… then where did she get that kind of money for all those drugs? Did she steal from the company?”

Byron exhaled, exhausted. “Those prescriptions add up to hundreds of millions. If that kind of money moved through our accounts, Hamilton and Dad would’ve known. There’s only one explanation: Loyce is brilliant—world-class. Her medical skill is so high that even CoreWell has to treat her like royalty.”

He remembered the time he’d run into Loyce at CoreWell and assumed she was following him. Now it seemed ridiculous. It must’ve been coincidence. Loyce was probably there because she had real business—maybe even helping them compound medicine.

The regret landed like a weight in his chest. Listening to Quiana had led him to make too many mistakes.

Adele looked dazed. “But how old was she back then? She wasn’t even eighteen.”

Byron met her eyes, then gave a bitter little smile. “If we want to save Hamilton’s legs and cure your condition… we may have to go back and beg Loyce. If you apologize, Mom, it might be easier.”

Before, the Sampsons could fix things with a single phone call. Now Byron understood: Loyce had a wall between them, and she wouldn’t help so easily again.

If Keegan had really used half the family’s funds to lock down the partnership, losing the project meant the Vaughns were staring at a cash-flow collapse.

Byron’s face drained of color. “You just got engaged, and our family bought into Vaughn shares because we thought we’d get a cut of that project. If this blows up, we get dragged down with them.”

Quiana sounded stunned, lost. “What do we do, Byron? I tried to talk to Dad, but he’s been locked in his study for days. He won't come out or talk to me!”

“Dad must already know,” Byron said, mind racing. Right now, there was only one person he could rely on—himself. He had to go find Keegan and figure out how to stop the damage.