At the exact same time, Langford Medical received the enforcement notice from Thorne Corp's regulators.
The decision to suspend all new in-home services for Langford Medical's family companionship project officially took effect. All existing families had to go through a re-authorization process, and the promotional materials database was sealed for review.
Willow was removed from the project remediation group chat.
When the notification "You are no longer in this group chat" popped up on her screen, she was sitting in her room on the second floor of the Whitaker estate. She didn't move for a long time.
Those few words were incredibly brief.
So brief that it felt like a door softly closing right in her face.
Downstairs, Lydia Whitaker was still arguing with Quentin.
Terms like Vivian's old case, Vanguard Trading, and Apex Digital felt like endless rain, leaving everyone in the Whitaker household anxious and thoroughly drenched.
Willow gripped her phone, her fingertips turning white.
Stellaris had survived.
Wren had held her ground once again.
Meanwhile, she had lost Lawrence's trust, Jude's safety net, and her position in the Langford Medical project.
Gavin's message remained on her screen.
Tonight at 8 PM, meet the contact.
Willow stared at the text, her eyes growing increasingly cold.
She had very few ways to retreat now.
So, she would have to walk deeper into the dark.
At 7:00 PM, the staff at Stellaris gradually headed out.
Wren was the last to leave.
She filed the Ethics Board's interim opinions, Thorne Corp's regulatory conclusions, and the Apex Digital restoration report respectively. On her desk lay the extraction report provided by Robert.
The Anonymous USB Drive had completed secure extraction.
Inside was only one encrypted folder.
Folder name: Confirmed Version Page 1.
Password hint: Cobalt Folder.
Wren stared at the words "Cobalt Folder."
The hard cobalt folder.
The right drawer.
The key to Cabinet S.
When she was sixteen, she had gone to Brightstone's old building looking for it, only to be dragged away by Quentin.
All these years later, that cobalt folder was still like a coordinate hidden in the fog. All clues pointed to it, yet no one had ever actually found it.
Robert pushed the dedicated forensics laptop toward her.




Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Sign the Papers Mr. Langford