It was past eight in the evening by the time Lawrence Langford returned to Langford Tower.
The headquarters was still awash in light.
When he stepped out of the elevator, the staff in The Secretariat stood up instinctively. No one dared to ask where he had been, and no one dared to ask why his face looked so grim.
Lawrence walked straight into his office.
The door clicked shut, severing the noise from the outside world.
The W Report still sat on his desk.
Twenty-seven pages.
The edges of the printed paper were perfectly neat, the cover bearing a simple title: Langford Medical Data Partnership Compliance Risk Alert.
It didn't bear Wren Whitaker's name.
But now he knew—it was her.
He stood behind his desk for a long time before opening the file.
Page thirteen: Family Interview Audio.
Page eighteen: Outsourced Model Training.
The final page: Medical technology should not rely on the inability of the silenced to refuse in order to advance.
She had written these words years ago.
Back when Leo Langford had just been born. She had sat in the Langford Estate late at night, typing on her laptop with baby bottles, wet wipes, and a child's blanket scattered around her.
And when he walked past, all he had said was, "You don't need to worry about company affairs."
Lawrence raised a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose.
The office was suffocatingly quiet.
So quiet that he could hear the unsuppressed tremor in his own breathing.
His phone screen lit up.
A message from the legal department.
"Mr. Langford, as requested, all materials related to the W Report have been isolated. The industry group screenshots have been preserved for evidence, and we are currently tracing the dissemination chains for Starbridge Media and Quasar Business Consulting."
Lawrence stared at the words "Quasar Business Consulting."
The company under Gavin Shaw's name.


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