Chapter 537
He finally stopped his pen and slowly raised his head, his dark, bottomless eyes locking onto Declan.
His expression was freezing, his gaze as sharp as a blade, radiating the overwhelming pressure of an apex predator. “Is there something else p>
Under that inscrutable stare, Declan’s chest tightened. He hastily forced down his panic and began to explain.
Declan swallowed hard, not daring to hide a single detail as he desperately clarified the situation.
“I did contact the director of the forensic center beforehand for a private meeting, hoping to secure the outcome we wanted.
But before I could even make a move, the director told me himself p>
The batch of ashes was severely contaminated before it even hit their inventory.
It happened at the source. It wasn’t my doing. Someone beat us to it p>
The moment those words hung in the air, a lethal glint slashed through Jarred’s pitch-black eyes.
The relaxed atmosphere in the room shattered instantly, replaced by a suffocating, freezing pressure that filled every corner of the office.
“Who p>
“I ran a check on everyone involved,” Declan said, hurriedly sliding forward the preliminary investigation file.
“When Helena helped Celeste fake her death, we assumed she used Sebastian Vaughan’s connections.
But Sebastian flatly refused. He would never dare touch something that crosses judicial lines and tampers with criminal forensics.
The Vaughan family has deep roots, but they are nowhere near powerful enough to control the sky.
At most, Sebastian would throw some money at a problem or pull minor strings. He’d never take a massive risk that crosses a legal red line p>
Declan looked up, his face grim. “Someone is strategizing for Helena and Eleanor, and they don’t belong to us.
Which means there is a hidden faction backing them, operating completely outside of our radar.
It was this faction that contaminated the sample ahead of time, wiping all traces completely clean p>
Jarred’s lips pressed into a hard line, his handsome, cold face turning increasingly dark and unreadable.
Sienna had already seized the vast majority of the real power within the Sterling family.
His mother and grandmother were: timid and cautious, utterly lacking the meticulous ruthlessness required for this, let alone the ability to mobilize a shadow organization.
Eliminating the impossible left a terrifying reality.
He had never realized that right under his nose, outside of his own chess board, lurked an unknown, unknown force operating in the shadows answering to someone else entirely.
A storm of freezing anger and complex emotions raged in the depths of his dark eyes.
The temperature in the office plummeted to an agonizing low.
The oppressive, menacing aura crashed down like a tidal wave, making it hard to breathe.
Declan’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he fearfully glanced at the man sitting in the executive chair.
Bracing himself, he handed over one final, urgent file, stammering, “Boss… there’s one more thing.
We just got word. Ms. Sloan… she formally submitted entirely new evidence to the municipal bureau p>
Jarred’s icy stare snapped into focus, locking onto Declan’s face.
“Celeste has a hidden Zurich Shadow Account that went completely unnoticed.
The records show that even after she was declared dead and buried, this account continued to process multiple massive international transfers.
And after a trace, it turns out this account operates deeply within The Laundering Syndicate.
Even worse, it’s directly linked to the violent kidnapping case Ms. Sloan suffered a while back.
The police have already finalized the paperwork. This time, they are legally forcing Ms. Vaughan back to the Capital for interrogation p>
Jarred’s pupils violently contracted.
In a split second, his hand shot out, snatching the file from Declan’s grip.