CHAPTER 4 — The Billionaire's Final Mistake
The morning after Victor Langford's arrest, the entire country was in shock.
Every news channel carried the same headline.
"Tech Titan Accused of Stealing Billion-Dollar Invention from Former Business Partner."
Employees abandoned Langford Energy headquarters.
Investors fled.
Stock prices collapsed.
But inside a federal evidence room, investigators discovered something even more disturbing.
Harold Bennett hadn't just been robbed.
Someone had tried to erase him from history.
Old photographs had been burned.
Birth certificates had disappeared.
Bank records had been altered.
Witnesses had suddenly "forgotten" what happened forty years earlier.
One investigator whispered,
"This wasn't greed."
"This was an execution... carried out on paper."
Meanwhile, Ethan tried returning to his normal life.
School.
Homework.
Delivering newspapers.
But strangers had begun following him.
A black SUV appeared outside his house every evening.
Unknown callers remained silent whenever his mother answered the phone.
One rainy afternoon, Ethan found another envelope inside his mailbox.
No stamp.
No address.
Just six handwritten words.
STOP DIGGING... OR YOU'RE NEXT.
His mother immediately called the FBI.
Agents installed security cameras around their home.
Everyone believed the danger had passed.
They were wrong.
That same night...
Someone broke into Harold Bennett's abandoned house again.
But they weren't looking for money.
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They were searching for one missing notebook.
The only notebook investigators had never found.
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