Chapter 553

Before the chaos in her mind could settle, a furious voice roared her name.
“Lauren!”
She looked up to see the shocked, alien expressions of her family. She froze.
Mr. Brennan’s face was a mask of fury. He slammed his cane on the floor. “Is what he said true?”
“Did you really steal company secrets to force Anastasia to rehire you?” Benson demanded, tossing his phone aside.
Mrs. Brennan’s eyes were filled with pain and disbelief. “You were so well- behaved these past few days. I thought you had changed. But you were just plotting against Ana again?” Any hope she had held for her granddaughter shattered in that moment. The child was truly lost.
Even Murray’s gentle expression had turned to ice. Winni just stared in shock. As much as she disliked Anastasia, she couldn’t believe Lauren would resort to such despicable tactics.
The collective weight of their stares was crushing. “Grandfather, I Lauren began, her face pale and drawn.
“My work here is done,” Sean said, cutting her off. He gave a polite nod to the Brennans and departed without a backward glance.
“Lauren, did you really threaten Anastasia with her own company’s research?” Murray asked, his voice soft but heavy with pressure.
“It’s her mother’s legacy, Lauren. You know that, don’t you?” Benson said coldly.
Mrs. Brennan had fallen silent, her disappointment too deep for words. Winni wanted to defend Lauren but found she couldn’t say a thing. Only Penny believed her daughter was in the right, but she was too intimidated by the three Brennan men to speak up.
The answer was already obvious. The court summons, delivered so brazenly to their home, said it all.
“You will return everything to Anastasia by the end of the day,” Mr. Brennan commanded.
Terrified by his grandfather’s wrath, Penny was about to run upstairs to retrieve the data when Lauren spoke.
“I’m sorry, Grandfather,” she said, her voice trembling. “I lost it.”
Penny stopped dead.
“You lost it?” the family echoed.
Lauren managed a pale smile. “It’s not that I don’t want to return it. The data was lost a while ago… I was too scared to tell Anastasia the truth, so I tried to bluff. I thought if I made outrageous demand, she would refuse, and it would buy me more time to try and find it.” Her voice cracked. “I never thought she would actually sue me.”
In a few sentences, she had twisted the truth completely.
Winni immediately relaxed. “See? I knew it was a misunderstanding. Lauren isn’t
that kind of person. Dad, she just made a mistake
But Mr. Brennan wasn’t listening. “Lost?!” he repeated, his face grim. Murray and Benson also looked deeply concerned. As a family of medical professionals, they knew how crucial the upcoming summit was. With two years of research gone, what would Unisonpharma do? Cecilia’s company had been struggling for years, and another failure at the summit could be the final nail in its coffin.
The thought of creating a new drug from scratch in a week never even crossed
their minds. That was impossible, especially for someone like Anastasia.
*** Official source ıs
The next morning, after being forced to kneel all night before Cecilia’s memorial tablet, Lauren was helped back to her room by Penny. The first’ thing she did, ignoring the searing pain in her knees, was retrieve the flash drive containing all of Unison Pharma’s research.
to
Without a moment’s hesitation, she dropped it into the toilet and flushed.
“You destroyed it?!” Penny whispered, horrified.
Lauren’s lips curved into a cold smile. “Now it’s truly lost. Anastasia wants it back?
I’m afraid that’s not going to happen.”
She would see just how Anastasia handled the summit now.
***