Sign the Papers Mr. Langford novel Chapter 383

During the time surrounding Vivian's death, she felt as if she were drowning underwater. Most of her memories from that period were violently fragmented. The funeral home, the white floral tributes, Quentin's exhausted face, Lydia standing in the living room with red-rimmed eyes. She remembered frantically searching for her mother's belongings, and she remembered the adults blocking her at every turn.

But had she ever come to this building?

She didn't know.

Seeing Wren turn deathly pale, the older woman asked hesitantly, "Are you alright?"

Wren forced herself back to reality.

"Did the teenage girl ever find what she was looking for?"

"No," the woman said. "We didn't know anything about a file folder. She stood out in the hallway for hours, until a man finally showed up and dragged her away."

"What man?"

"Looked like a relative. He was vicious." The woman let out a heavy sigh. "He grabbed the poor girl by the arm and practically hauled her out."

Wren's throat constricted.

A blurry shadow materialized in the back of her mind.

The elevator lobby, the concrete floor, a sharp, searing pain in her arm.

Someone snarling at her in a hushed, furious whisper: Haven't you humiliated us enough?

She had always thought it was a nightmare.

It wasn't.

Phoebe reached out, gently touching her wrist.

"Wren."

Wren took a sharp breath, clawing her way out of the suffocating haze of her own memories.

"Ma'am, do you happen to remember what the man looked like?"

The woman shook her head. "It's been too long. But it was probably her father. The girl kept screaming 'Dad' at him."

Quentin Whitaker.

Phoebe's face twisted into an expression of absolute disgust.

Joey muttered a curse under his breath before quickly biting his lip.

Wren noted down every detail and asked the woman to leave her contact information. The woman hesitated, but eventually jotted down her cell phone number.

Just as they were about to leave, she suddenly remembered something else.

"Oh, right. After that company broke their lease, the building management found an ID badge while clearing out the office."

Wren froze in her tracks.

"An ID badge?"

"I think it was from Langford Medical. Property management confiscated it, but I have no idea if they still have it."

The trio practically sprinted down to the second-floor management office.

The office staff had turned over several times, and their archive room was a chaotic mountain of unfiled paperwork. The duty manager was extremely reluctant to help until Phoebe slammed a formal legal notice and a subpoena request onto the desk. Only then did he grudgingly allow them to sign in and dig through the files.

This was where Joey finally proved his worth.

He squatted in front of the rusted filing cabinets, rapidly sorting through box after box of lease termination records. By the time he hit the year Brightstone Consulting dissolved, his hands were coated in a thick layer of dust.

"Got it," his voice was tight. "The vacating inventory sheet."

Wren rushed over.

The inventory was brief.

"Not a complete dead end."

She took a picture of the log and forwarded the badge number to Mr. Lawson.

Force Langford Medical to run a personnel search on Badge Number: LM-RC-027.

Twenty minutes later, Lawrence called.

Wren looked at the caller ID and hit accept.

"You're investigating Brightstone?" Lawrence cut straight to the chase.

"Mr. Lawson should have already sent the formal inquiry to Langford Medical."

"LM-RC-027 was a temporary visitor pass for an old rehabilitation project. It wasn't an employee badge."

"Who was the visitor?"

The line went completely silent.

Lawrence's voice dropped. "The registry page is missing."

Wren closed her eyes.

Missing. Yet again.

Lawrence clearly understood how absurd that sounded, rushing to clarify, "But the serial block corresponds to the negotiation phase for outsourcing on Project Morning Star Phase II. Anyone issued that tier of badge would have required a direct guarantor from within Langford Medical."

"And who was the guarantor?"

"Also missing."

Wren let out a soft laugh.