Chapter 6
The first weeks after Lila’s birth were a mix of joy and tension.
I spent every possible moment holding her, watching her sleep, memorizing every small feature of her face.
But the business and legal battles did not pause.
Our team had now raised our shareholding to 27%.
We were steadily buying from smaller shareholders who were selling out of fear of the scandal.
However, as we dug deeper into the company’s books, we found more irregularities.
Payments to unknown offshore accounts.
Contracts signed with shell companies.
Assets listed that did not actually exist.
“This is worse than we thought,” Father said during one of our meetings. “Helen has been moving money around for years, covering losses and lining her own pockets.”
But digging into those records also brought new dangers.
One evening, our lead investigator came to the house looking shaken.
“Sir, Elena,” he said. “We tried to access some of the older financial files. But we found that someone else has been looking into them too. And they left a warning—written directly into the digital records.”
He showed us the screen.
Scrawled across the margin of a ledger was a single line: Stop looking, or your child pays the price.
My blood ran cold.
They were not just fighting us in court—they were threatening my baby directly.
Father immediately increased security.
No one entered or left the property without ID checks.
All windows and doors were reinforced.
We installed bulletproof glass and 24-hour surveillance.
“Helen knows she is losing control,” he said. “This is desperation. But desperate people do dangerous things.”
A few days later, Marcus finally came to visit.
He looked tired and conflicted.
“I spoke to Helen again,” he said. “She told me that if you keep digging, you will uncover something that could damage Father’s reputation as well. She claims there was a partnership years ago that went wrong, and she has proof Father was involved in illegal deals.”
I looked at Father.
He nodded calmly.
“There was a partnership,” he said. “But it was legal, and it ended fairly. Helen is twisting the facts to make it look like something it is not. But she will try to use it to turn the public against us.”
Marcus sighed.
“I don’t know who to trust anymore. It feels like everyone has something to hide.”
“Trust what you see,” I said. “I was locked in a trunk. I was left to die. That is not a lie. Everything else is just smoke to hide the truth.”
Marcus left without giving an answer, but I saw doubt beginning to creep into his loyalty toward Helen.
Meanwhile, our shares climbed to 38%.
We were now the second-largest shareholders.
But then came the next twist.
A man named Gregory Hale, a former senior executive at Langford, contacted us.
He wanted to speak in private.
When he arrived, he brought with him a heavy briefcase.
“I worked for Helen for fifteen years,” he said. “I did what she asked, but I can’t keep quiet anymore. She didn’t just take money. She used Langford Group to launder funds from other sources. And she planned to sell the company’s core assets to a foreign buyer at a fraction of their value, just to get cash to pay off her own debts.”
He opened the briefcase.
Inside were years of hidden records, emails, and contracts.
As I looked through them, I realized the truth.
Helen wasn’t just trying to save her family’s name.
She was trying to cover up a criminal empire she had built beneath the company’s legitimate facade.
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But as I finished reading, Hale looked up with a grave expression.
“There is one more thing,” he said. “She isn’t just working alone. She has partners. Powerful people who will not let their business fall apart easily. Taking Langford Group will mean making enemies you cannot even imagine.”
