Sign the Papers Mr. Langford novel Chapter 569

The windshield wipers cleared away the rain, only for new streaks to immediately blur the glass again.

Wren parked in a temporary spot outside the hospital, her thumb hovering over her phone screen, paralyzed.

The photo sent by the unknown number showed a yellowed inner page of the black ledger.

The top right corner read: B-17.

The text below was heavily underlined in red ink.

Family Interview Sample Index, 4 copies.

Handover Destination: Apex Testing Team.

What truly sent ice through Wren's veins was the date preceding that entry.

Nineteen days after Vivian Vance's death.

Her mother was already gone.

Which meant no one was left to stand in the conference room and declare, "Unconfirmed until an ethical review is supplemented."

No one was left to submit opinion letters. No one was left to ask if the archive clerk held any responsibility. And no one was left to forcefully slap those files back onto the desk when the project team tried to take the family interview samples.

After she died, they finally bypassed her.

Wren stared at the photo, feeling an invisible hand slowly crushing her chest.

It hurt.

But it was an agonizingly sobering pain.

She forwarded the photo to Robert and Maya, then sent it to Phoebe separately.

Less than a minute later, Phoebe called.

"Where are you?"

"Outside the hospital."

Phoebe's voice seethed with rage. "I saw the date. Wren, these bastards specifically waited until your mother died to send those files to Apex."

Wren stared out into the rain.

The streetlights bled into a blurry mess through the wet glass.

"Yeah."

"They claimed your mother was emotionally unstable, that she didn't grasp reality, that she was impossible to work with," Phoebe spat, her breathing erratic with anger. "But the real truth is that while she was alive, they were terrified to cross her. The second she died, the files suddenly moved."

Wren didn't say a word.

Those words were like a blade, but they successfully snapped the most crucial piece of the old case perfectly into place.

Vivian hadn't been the collateral damage of a failed project.

She had been the most massive obstacle standing in the way of the project's launch.

That was why they had to paint her as paranoid, fragile, and utterly ignorant of commercial realities.