The Captain I Married by Chance novel Chapter 405

"What exactly is the story behind this VU Media?" someone from the back of the room called out.

The reporting officer clicked to the next slide, bringing up a faded corporate profile. The screen displayed the name of VU Media's founder: a man named Lawrence Gunn. Judging by the birth date on his old ID records, he would be forty-five years old today.

"Have we been able to track this guy down?"

The officer on stage shook his head grimly. "No contact whatsoever."

"Is he officially a missing person, or...?"

"Records indicate he fled the country."

A heavy silence blanketed the briefing room. Years of investigative instinct told every detective in the room that VU Media's sudden bankruptcy was far from a simple business failure. There was undoubtedly a dark underbelly to the story. But with the CEO having vanished across international borders a decade ago, their only remaining thread was to interrogate the twelve artists who had survived the fallout.

Whether those celebrities would even remember the intricate details of a decade-old scandal was a massive gamble. Whether they would be willing to tell the police the truth was an even bigger one.

"Keep digging down this rabbit hole," Nathan ordered, his voice cutting through the quiet. "Focus all efforts on locating former employees of VU Media. See if anyone knows the real reason the company went under, and find out exactly what kind of shady deals went down when those contracts were sold off."

The officer on stage nodded emphatically, signaling that this was the extent of their current intelligence.

"Good work," Nathan said with a curt nod. He swept his predatory gaze across the room. "Does anyone else have anything to add?"

Nora blinked, pulled from her thoughts. "Hmm?" It took her a second to register the question. She shook her head. "I honestly have no idea."

She leaned back into the leather seat. "Looking at the dates on those contracts, this all went down ten years ago. The entertainment industry wasn't the booming goldmine it is today. For an agency to sign twelve fresh faces right out of the gate, they had to be sitting on millions of dollars in capital. And a company with that kind of financial backing doesn't just implode in six months, regardless of the industry."

Nora furrowed her brow. "So, my gut says whatever happened was catastrophic. But if it was a massive scandal, we shouldn't be hitting a brick wall trying to find public records of it. What's your take?"

"Your logic is flawless," Nathan agreed, his grip steady on the steering wheel. "If the bankruptcy involved criminal foul play, there would be a paper trail. Even a legitimate bankruptcy requires a mountain of legal filings. But all we have is a sudden declaration of insolvency, a CEO fleeing the country, and the artists being carved up and sold off to rival agencies."

He paused, his gaze fixed on the road ahead. "If these artists had immediately skyrocketed to A-list status after being bought out, I'd suspect a hostile takeover. It would look like a rival company saw their star potential, deliberately tanked VU Media to bankrupt them, and poached the talent on the cheap."