At the Azure Sea Castle, everything Austin had prided himself on was trampled under Ella's feet, crushed to dust in Ironbridge.

The stairs echoed with the feeble cough of Karen. Austin looked up to see Karen being supported by Briar.

Karen was staring at him with a disappointment so profound he had never witnessed it before.

"Grandmother, I've done nothing wrong," He said, his voice hoarse with a hint of defiance. "She's the one who's been lying to me all this time."

"You fool!" Karen trembled with rage. "You still don't see your mistake!"

"What mistake have I made?" Austin's bloodshot eyes revealed his anger and resentment. "Was it marrying a woman full of lies, or being played for a fool by her and her family for three years?"

"Your mistake was having eyes but failing to see, misjudging people!"Karen struck her cane heavily on the floor, her voice laden with authority and fury.

"I told you to end things with Judith, but you wouldn't listen! I told you to treat Ella properly, yet you wounded her beyond repair! Now you've disgraced the Raymond name abroad, and you dare come back questioning me?”

Austin's chest heaved violently, unable to form a response.

Never before had Karen reprimanded him with such severity.

"What about John's press conference? What was that about?" Karen

changed tack suddenly.

"I don't know." He replied.

"You'd better not know!" Karen fixed him with a cold stare. "Let me tell you, Austin, if you interfere with the Brooks family affairs again, don't call me Grandma anymore! We have wronged Ella terribly. You will investigate this immediately! Find out exactly what happened to Janice twenty-six years ago! What did the Brooks family do to her? I want every detail,every incident investigated thoroughly! This is what you owe her!"

Austin fell silent.

He took out his phone and called his assistant.

"Use every connection we have. Find everything about a woman named Janice from twenty-six years ago. All her connections to the Brooks family and Vanguard Technologies."

After hanging up, he looked toward the window, his mind echoing with every word Ella had spoken at the Azure Sea Castle.

Prometheus.

The Sprout Initiative.

This woman he'd slept beside for three years,yet never truly known-how many more secrets did she carry?

In Ironbridge, Lumeria, Ella had already received her new boarding pass.

She wasn't returning to Arcadia, nor was she going to Solaris.

"Ella, have you lost your mind?" Jason was practically shouting through the phone. "At a timelike this, you're going to Drakmoor?"

"Yes," Ella replied, her determination unyielding as steel. "If John wants to drag this out in court and destroy me, then I'll bring the battlefield to a place he could never imagine! He claims I stole something? Then I'll go reclaim what truly belonged to my mom! Vanguard Technologies is my first stop."

"But what about Derek?"

"Let him wait! After I've reclaimed everything that was taken, I'll meet him face to face!"

She ended the call and strode toward the boarding gate.

Just as she was about to board, her phone vibrated again-an encrypted message from Austin.

The message contained no apology, no explanation, just an old black and white photograph.

In the photo was a young woman, radiant with happiness,holding an infant in her arms. Beside her stood a man in a white lab coat with a scholarly appearance.

Ella recognized the man-Robert Adler, founder of Vanguard Technologies and inventor of the patent that had been used against her.

The woman was unmistakably her mother,Janice.

Below the photograph was a single line:

[He is not the enemy.]

Austin's message fell like a stone into the still waters of Ella's heart.creating ripples that could not be calmed.

In the photograph. Janice smiled brightly.

The light in her eyes was unlike anything Ella had ever seen in any Brooks family photos-it was a genuine hope and trust in the future.

The infant in her arms was undoubtedly Ella herself, and the foreign man beside her-Robert, founder of Vanguard Technologies-gazed at Janice with evident admiration and respect.

This was certainly not the demeanor of enemies.

"He is not the enemy." This statement was more disruptive than a thousand words, tearing a massive hole in Ella's carefully constructed blueprint for revenge.

If Robert wasn't the enemy, then why did he file that infringing patent? If he wasn't the enemy, was Austin's acquisition of Vanguard Technologies a case of being used as a pawn, or did he have other motives?

Why would Austin send her this photograph now?

Was it an attempt to make amends? An apology? Or a deeper trap she couldn't see through?

The final boarding call echoed through the terminal.

Ella put away her phone, the confusion in her eyes replaced by an even more determined resolve-whether she was stepping into the fire,she had to venture in herself.

She turned resolutely and walked into the boarding bridge.

During the twelve-hour transoceanic flight. Ella didn't close her eyes once.

She connected to the plane's expensive and slow satellife intornet

meticulously analyzing every piece of information about Robert sent by Jason and Austin's assistant.

Robert, a Drakmoori tech legend, founded Vanguard Technologies twenty-seven years ago, initially focusing on basic algorithm research for artificial intelligence, earning a stellar reputation in the industry.

Strangely, after filing the "Drone Emergency Avoidance System" patent twenty years ago, Vanguard Technologies seemed to vanish from the scene-the company hadn't released any commercial products since.

Nor had they conducted any public financing rounds, as if Robert were a genius who had voluntarily retreated, keeping to himself and disconnecting from the world.

This completely contradicted the development logic of a tech company.especially a Drakmoori one.

Unless it was never meant to develop, but to protect something from the beginning.

The plane landed at the airport. Without checking into a hotel or even adjusting to the jet lag. Ella rented a car and navigated directly to Vanguard Technologies' headquarters.

The location wasn't in a core tech district but in a rather remote industrial area near the coast.

An unremarkable three-story gray building with weathered exterior walls looked more like an abandoned warehouse than a company that had once stirred waves in the tech world.

Ella pushed open the door and was greeted not by a receptionist but by the heavy smell of dust and disinfectant.

"I'm looking for Robert Adler." Ella stated.

A man wiping down a server lifted his head. studying her with an appraising gaze.

"You must be Ms. Brooks?"

Ella nodded.

"Follow me. Dr. Adler has been expecting you."

Doctor?