Chapter 6: The Suppressed Truth
The room fell into an absolute, breathless silence as Marcus slid the yellowed documents out of their brittle envelope and spread them across the polished mahogany desk. The amber glow of the brass desk lamps illuminated official police letterheads, faded carbon-copy statements, and a detailed forensic diagram of the warehouse floor plan from twenty years ago. Madam Zhao looked down at the papers, her hands resting motionless on the edge of the desk. For the first time since Nathan had burst into her foyer, her icy composure cracked; her lips parted slightly, and her dark eyes darted across the typewritten lines with frantic speed.
"This... this is impossible," Madam Zhao whispered, her voice losing its previous metallic edge and sounding, for a fleeting second, like a grieving sister rather than a ruthless corporate titan. "The original investigation concluded that the fire started near the main electrical panel by negligence." Marcus leaned over the desk, pointing a calloused finger at a specific paragraph near the bottom of the second page. "Look at the investigator's handwritten notes in the margin, Madam. The electrical panel was bypassed manually from the exterior junction box. That requires a master keycard—a keycard that only the senior zoning director possessed at the time."
Nathan watched Madam Zhao closely, observing the subtle micro-expressions playing across her face—the slight twitch of her left eyelid, the sudden shallow breathing, and the way her fingers curled into tight fists against the silk of her qipao. She recognized the name on the margin note. It was the name of the man who had mentored her after her brother's death, the same man who had helped her consolidate her initial wealth and secure her position in the city council. The mentor she had trusted blindly had been the architect of her family's tragedy all along.
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"Victor Vance," Madam Zhao murmured, the name tasting like ash in her mouth. She sank slowly back into her high-backed leather chair, her gaze fixed on the yellowed police report as if it were a ghost materializing before her eyes. "He told me you two were responsible. He comforted me at the funeral. He funded my education abroad so I could return and reclaim what was 'stolen' from our family." Nathan stood up slowly from his chair, walking over to Lily to ensure she was still resting peacefully before turning back to face the desk.
"Vance used your grief as a weapon to eliminate his corporate rivals and consolidate his own real estate monopoly," Nathan said, his voice steady and devoid of malice. "He destroyed my startup, he framed us for arson, and he turned you into an instrument of his vengeance while he sat back and profited from the chaos." The revelation hung heavily in the room, suffocating the ambient warmth and replacing it with a grim, collective realization. The enemy had never been Nathan or Marcus; the true predator was still out there, pulling the strings from behind a veil of political immunity and immense wealth.
