Chapter 474
Bryan and Alice slunk away from the police station in defeat. While Bowen’s intervention had been within their expectations, the sudden appearance of the national research institute’s personnel had completely blindsided them.
“Thank God this was officially spearheaded by the Lawsons. No one can trace it back to us, or we’d be in real trouble,” Bryan muttered as their car pulled up to the Wilson estate.
Alice gritted her teeth. “Aubree is really something else.”
Bryan let out a sigh, his eyes full of complicated emotions. Who could’ve imagined that the poor girl everyone in the Wilson family used to trample on would turn into someone nobody dares to mess with now? Even saying she’d been reborn didn’t come close to describing how much she’d changed.
Bryan rubbed his temples. Their troubles weren’t over. They’d failed to bring Aubree back. The moment they stepped through the doors, Ronald Wilson eagerly looked past them, his face falling when he didn’t see the person he’d been waiting for. “Where’s Aubree?”
Here came the second wave of trouble. Bryan had made a deal with Elizabeth. First, they’d have Aubree detained and broken, making it easy for him and Alice to retrieve her. Once she was back in the Wilson family, whether she’d ever leave again would be their decision. And with their blood ties, even if Bowen and his whole messy crew came, the Wilsons would still hold the moral high ground. He’d been so confident in this plan that he’d even boasted about it to Ronald in advance, hoping to earn some praise. But now…
Bryan let out a helpless sigh. “Dad, Bowen got in the way again.”
“What?” Ronald exploded in anger.
Bowen again? What is the Turner family after this time? Aubree is my daughter. She belongs to the Wilson family, not the Turners! he fumed inwardly.
Bryan went on, “By the time Mom and I arrived, Bowen had already brought the Moores and the Kings with him.”
Ronald frowned. “Even with the Moores and Kings there, you had Lucas on your side. How did you still fail to bring her back?” If they’d just been a bit tougher, maybe it could’ve worked out.
Alice’s face darkened as she shook her head. “It wasn’t just them. The old bastards from the national research institute showed up too.”
“Them? Why are they involved?” Ronald was stunned. Those people represented the state. If they were backing Aubree, even the Lawson family would have no choice but to back down.
“The Turner family would really bother the research institute over something this minor?” Ronald muttered. Sure, the Turners have connections with those people, but to call in such a huge favor just for Aubree? Ronald was just dumbfounded.
Before he could process how highly Bowen must value Aubree, Bryan hit him with something that nearly made his jaw drop. “The institute people didn’t seem to be here for Bowen. They came specifically for Aubree,” Bryan said.
“Are you serious?” Ronald blurted out.
The room fell into stunned silence. They actually came just for Aubree? Since when did she get that kind of influence? he thought in disbelief. Even the Kings and Moores had been taken aback at the scene.
Bryan added, “I heard Aubree invested in the research institute.”
“Huh?” Ronald blurted out, totally baffled. That can’t be the whole story, he thought. If the research institute wanted investors, there’d be a whole crowd of people fighting to throw their money at them. He’d tried before to buy his way into their circles, but they’d shut him out. In all of Rithol, the only ones who could get close to the institute were those with pre-existing ties, usually through family connections.
In other words, those the institute allowed to invest were, by extension, those they’d protect.
Aubree hadn’t gotten her foot in the door just by being rich. She’d leveraged knowledge from her past life—technologies and research directions that wouldn’t be mainstream for years. She didn’t understand the specifics, but pointing the institute toward proven paths had saved them countless dead ends.