CHAPTER 423: CHAPTER 423: UNCLE MILO

How could Aurora not see what the old woman was planning? For a moment, she really wanted to slap the old woman again. Even at her age, the woman still tried to control Adam. That made Aurora furious.

She stared at Lovely for a long second, then turned to her father.

"Instead of meeting with a woman like that, you should go and talk with a lawyer," she said plainly. "Maybe things are not as difficult as they seem."

Hans cut in right away. "I am a lawyer," he said, his tone smooth and proud.

"I can say this. Since Adam once stole items, and it was proven, and Adam accepted it, then he can go to jail. It will not be long, but it will be enough to tarnish Adam’s reputation. The best option is to meet and discuss. Make a deal."

There was a hidden threat in his words.

The threat is that once the matter reaches court, the ending won’t be as simple as losing money but reputation too!

Aurora clenched her fists but kept her voice steady. Inside, she promised herself that when she had the chance, she would dig out every bad thing Hans and Lovely had done.

She would use it against them one day. For now she stayed quiet. She leaned closer to Adam, who already looked at Mary and said it was time to go.

This time, Lovely did not try to stop them. She stood still as they left the restaurant.

Everyone stared at Adam with tense faces, as if waiting to hear what he would do next.

Adam took a deep breath and tried to look calm. He had his family around him.

They worried, but they also loved him. Lovely was not really family to him. He had built a life without needing her approval. He was now the CEO of a company. Why worry about what she said?

When Adam felt his children’s eyes on him, he sighed softly and spoke in a low voice. "Her name is Lovely," he said. "She is my mother."

They all nodded quietly. They had heard the stories before. Adam told bits of his past sometimes, but he did not like to speak about it. Now he said more, and his voice held a tired memory.

"When I first got sick," Adam began, his tone turning bitter, "my mother was gentle. She would correct me and comfort me. I thought I had the best parents. Then my eldest brother started to shine. My brother did well in school and in life. My mother noticed him more. She stopped paying attention to me. I was desperate, so I started to study hard and even caught up with my brother’s level. But then he developed depression because of my performance, and my mother...slowly, she changed. She began to treat me as if I were a problem. She blamed me for things I did not do. She said I was useless. She called me a thief."

In fact, what crushed Adam the most wasn’t the fact that his mother was biased, but the fact that once his mother was gentle too!

Yet in the end...she changed.

Adam closed his eyes for a moment.

"That crushed me. I stopped wanting to study. I tried to be quiet so my brother would not feel bad. But the more I tried, the more they ignored me. When I grew older, I was kicked out. I went to my uncle’s house to live. I was mistreated. I was mocked. My childhood was dark."

He looked at each of his children.

"I worked to change my life after that. I did not want pity. I wanted to prove I could stand on my own. I started small. I worked hard. I made mistakes, and I learned. I kept going. Now I am here. I will not let her ruin what I built."

The children listened quietly. Olivia’s eyes filled with worry, and Adriana looked angry. Aurora felt a hard chill in her chest. The family knew how much Adam had suffered. They felt how gloomy their father’s life was once.

Olivia finally spoke, unable to hold back. "Are you really going to meet that old hag?" she asked, using a word that showed her anger.

Adam frowned. "Do not call your grandmother names," he said sharply.

Olivia rolled her eyes. "If I had a mother like that, I would call her that too," she said.

Mary, who sat beside them, held up her hand and smiled to calm them all. "My children," she said softly, "your father will do what he thinks best. We should trust him."

Adam nodded. He had the look of a man who had made a choice. He smiled at his family, and they fell quiet. He walked out of the living room and returned to his room. The family watched him go. It felt strange and heavy.

Once they were gone, Aurora turned to the others. "I will check on Hans and Lovely," she said. "I do not trust them. I will use my skills."

"Do it," Alex said. He had a serious look. "Find out everything. If they try to hurt Dad, we will make them pay."

Aurora opened her laptop. Her fingers moved fast across the keys. She had already used her hacking skills before, and she knew how to dig. Within five to ten minutes she had pages of information.

She read aloud, her voice steady. "Adam’s eldest brother is Milo. He appears in many business records. When Milo joins a company, the company often loses money. Products go missing. Accounts show strange gaps. Then Milo’s bank account jumps up. It looks bad."

Alex’s jaw tightened. "So Milo moves into a place, things go wrong, and money moves to his accounts," he said. "That pattern is not an accident."

Aurora nodded. "There is no direct evidence yet, but the timeline is suspicious. Every time Milo shows up, problems follow. It looks like theft or fraud. Maybe he hides behind others or uses tricks. If we find more proof, we can bring it to the police."

Olivia’s face turned hard. "We cannot let them threaten Dad. He already suffered too much."

Lucas spoke up. "I can help. I know a contact who deals with company audits. If we get a proper audit, we can show clear numbers. That will be stronger than words."

Adriana added, "I can help with legal advice. I will talk to someone I trust. If Milo has a pattern, we need a paper trail."

Alex smiled and said quietly, "We will do it right. No violence. We will do it with proof. We will not give them room to lie."

Aurora felt a hot relief and a cold fury at the same time. Her hands shook as she clicked through records.

She found small notes, receipts, and old memos. Some names matched other business problems in different cities. Her heart pounded. These people were not only cruel; they were clever. They played a long game.

"Look," Aurora said, pointing to a file. "Here is a transfer. A company lost five hundred thousand in inventory. The account shows a transfer to a shell company. That shell company lists Milo as a director once he leaves. We can trace the money if we work with a proper investigator."

Alex leaned in and studied the screen. "Good work," he said. "Keep digging. Do not let them know you are watching."

But internally, he was impressed by Aurora’s skill set.

She was only a 17-year-old about to turn 18 years old, and yet she knew so much.

Her hacking skills surpassed all the other people he had ever met.

’A genius prodigy!’ He thought, ’Sigh! After all, she is my sister! She is a genius just like me!’

Unaware of the thoughts in Alex’s mind, Aurora was busy with the hacking stuff and soon realized a problem she had overlooked before.

For some unknown reason, Adam’s family member had held records of what he had stolen. It was as if they were waiting for Adam to make it big and then blackmail him with that stuff.

What made the matter troublesome was that they had a pen drive containing all the evidence.

How would she even be able to delete the evidence from the pen drive?

Without hesitation, she posed her question to her siblings, who gave different ideas one by one.

Lucas was the first to speak

"It’s an offline device. But maybe we can locate where they keep it. If it’s connected to any system, even once, we’ll have a trace."

Adriana nodded slowly. "True. But knowing people like them, they probably keep it hidden somewhere safe, maybe in a private locker or a home vault. They know how dangerous that information is."

Olivia frowned, tapping her fingers on the table impatiently.

"So we just sit here while they have that pen drive ready to ruin Dad’s life anytime they want? That’s ridiculous. We should just go and take it from them."