The Hidden Empress Stripping Her Secrets After Divorce novel Chapter 612

Evelyn's brow twitched slightly as she scrolled down to the next entry.

Page two. Miles Vance, sixty-two years old, senior executive at a state-owned enterprise, spent two years in Germany. His social network was impeccably clean, with absolutely no overlap with the Lancaster family.

Page three. George Vance, fifty-nine years old, a provincial governor. He had zero overseas experience. Ruled out entirely.

Page four. William Vance, sixty-one years old, director of a research institute. He had spent a year as a visiting scholar in France. His network included a few French corporate executives, but none were connected to Logan.

Page five. Stephen Vance, fifty-seven years old, president of a commercial bank. He had studied abroad in the UK. His connections were entirely within elite financial circles, but again, the Lancaster name was nowhere to be found.

Evelyn scrolled through the document, page by agonizing page. With every name, her frown deepened.

It wasn't that these men didn't fit the profile. The problem was they *all* fit the profile, yet none of them felt right. They were plausible candidates—their ages matched, their ranks matched, and they had European experience. But they were all dead ends because not a single shred of hard evidence pointed directly to any of them.

She rubbed her temples, frustration mounting.

This wasn't working.

Out of all these names, none of them gave her that visceral *aha* moment. It was a very specific intuition she relied on. In the operating room, the second she sliced open the skin and saw the lesion, she instinctively knew, *that's the problem*. Now, after reading through dozens of pages, her brain felt like absolute mush.

She picked up her phone and found Sebastian's contact.

It was the encrypted line. She hit dial.

It rang once before he answered.

"What's wrong?" Sebastian's voice was slightly hoarse, sounding as if he was buried in work.

"I had someone pull a list of every high-ranking official with the last name Vance. They just sent it over. I've been staring at it for hours, and none of them feel like the right guy."

The line was silent for two seconds.

"You read the entire list?"

"Dozens of pages. My eyes are crossing. I feel like I'm looking in entirely the wrong direction."

"Not necessarily. It's highly possible we just missed a tiny detail."

Evelyn leaned back heavily in her chair. "I'm going to forward the email to you. Look it over. Maybe a fresh set of eyes will catch something I'm blind to."

"Alright. Send it over."

Evelyn tapped her screen a few times, forwarding the massive encrypted file.

"Did you get it?"

"Got it. I'll start reviewing it. You've been staring at a screen all afternoon; go get some rest." His voice softened considerably. "Didn't my mother just arrive? Let her make you some soup. Stop trying to shoulder everything yourself."

Evelyn couldn't help but smile. "Actually, Eleanor told me you were strictly meant for hard labor, and I should order you around whenever I need something."

"She's absolutely right."

Evelyn laughed out loud.

"Alright, start reading. Call me the second you find anything."

"Will do."