Lost and Found: Return of My Mysterious Fiancee

like a little one."

Esther had wept for an entire Wednesday when she first heard of Natalie's death, and even now, the memory could still bring her to tears. Natalie reached out to wipe Esther's eyes, saying, "Come on, the child is all grown up now, still crying Tina handed her a tissue, urging, "Dry your tears."

Esther looked up at Tina, then turned to Natalie, "Natalie, Tina has suffered a lot at the Reed family's hands. Today, with both you and Mr. Brookes here, I represent the Reed family and offer you and Tina an apology." With those words, Esther bowed deeply.

Tina helped her up, saying, "Aunt Esther, you don't need to do this."

"Really, if you keep this up, I'll get angry," Natalie added, patting Esther on the back. "Everyone's here now, isn't it much better?"

Esther nodded repeatedly, "Yes, you're right, it is good now."

Linden, standing aside, knew well the suffering endured over the years by both Natalie and Tina, due to Jasper and his organization. He knew that merely an apology or a bow could not make up for it all. Yet, these matters were unrelated to his beloved.

Linden put his hand on Esther's shoulder, gently comforting her, "Esther, it's rare for you to meet Natalie, let's not talk about these unhappy things. Let's talk about something cheerful."

"Alright, Natalie, let's go chat over there," Esther affectionately linked arms with Natalie, and they went off to join Scarlett in conversation.

Linden, Tina, and the always silent Grandpa Brookes tacitly moved to Grandpa Brookes' study.

Linden knew that Tina's invitation to the Brookes family was not simply for a banquet.

Inside the study, Jared personally poured several cups of tea, already waiting there. Linden was surprised; he hadn't expected Jared to be there already.

"Chief Linden, you've been wronged this time," Grandpa Brookes began as soon as they entered the study.

Linden bowed slightly, "That's very kind of you, Mr. Brookes. I didn't expect Everett to be your daughter; no wonder she's so outstanding."

Grandpa Brookes chuckled, "Let's dispense with the formalities. I've heard from Jared that you're quite interested in the hidden families."

Linden glanced at Jared, who was busy pouring tea for Tina and wasn't looking at him. Linden's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly before he composed himself, "Yes, you must know, our Shaw family is a branch of the hidden families. After the Solomon family was destroyed, we acquired their mines. But since then, peace has eluded the Shaw family."

Grandpa Brookes laughed again; he was well aware of the situation.

After the fall of the Solomon family, the Brookes family had considered keeping the mines until they could return them to Tam Solomon. But they were too late, and the Shaw family had taken them first.

Over the years, the Brookes family had merely observed the situation of the Shaw family, knowing that the deaths of the head of the Shaw family and Linden's parents were due to retaliation. Their occupation of another family's property had resulted in the entire family's demise, and they felt it was a justified retribution.

Grandpa Brookes was no saint and felt no remorse.

What Grandpa Brookes hadn't expected was that Linden would turn out to be an agent of the X Bureau and had rapidly risen to become the deputy director of the agency.

Initially, he wondered why Linden was advancing so quickly, only to realize that he intended to confront the hidden families.

"Have you ever considered that the troubles facing the Shaw family today are the result of your own actions?" Grandpa Brookes asked.

A flicker of realization crossed Linden's eyes, "From what you're saying, you also know about my grandfather and my parents' deaths due to the Solomon family's curse, don't you? What exactly is in that mine!" Linden was visibly agitated, his hands unconsciously clenching.

The couple sweetly engaged in conversation finally seemed to have an effect.

Tina tapped on the desk, "Chief Linden, calm down. Everything that has happened to the Shaw family has nothing to do with the Solomon family. On the contrary, you should consider whether it's the Shaw family's fault." Linden furrowed his brows, "What do you mean by that?"

Jared pulled out a document from a briefcase at his side; it was a contract signed by Shaw Industries and a pharmaceutical company.

"What now? Mr. Daryl wants to manage whom Shaw Industries cooperates with?" Linden scoffed.

Whenever the hidden families and the Solomon family were mentioned, Linden could hardly contain his excitement.

Jared flipped through the contract, pointing at the name of the party B, "Aren't you going to look at the name of this chairman?"

Linden was taken aback, and upon closer inspection, he realized the chairman was Tina!

Holding a teacup, Tina took a sip of tea and smiled, "When the company changed its chairman, we re-signed the cooperation agreement with your company. Didn't you know?"

At that time, Linden was busy setting up a trap for the White family and had no time to bother with minor details like re-signing cooperation agreements, naturally overlooking who the new chairman of the pharmaceutical company was. After all, what Shaw Industries needed was the pharmaceutical company's provision of protective masks to stop the sacrifice of workers and to preserve the reputation of Shaw Industries. Linden was no fool, "Who was the chairman before this?"

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"My master, Tam Solomon," Tina said, arms crossed, her eyes fixed on Linden.

Linden was shocked; the very Tam Solomon he had been desperately seeking had been hiding right under his nose all along!

Watching Linden's expression, Tina couldn't help but smile, revealing that Master Tam had once handed over a medical formula to Linden's grandfather, who had disregarded it as worthless.

"All of this is the doing of your own Shaw family, because at that time the cost of producing the medicine was too high. Shaw Industries didn't want to administer it to the workers and didn't take the poisonous gases seriously, which led to the workers' sudden deaths. Moreover, your grandfather didn't publicize this issue, causing your parents to be unaware of the poisonous gas, leading to their unfortunate demise."

"Who do you think should be blamed for this tragedy?"

Linden's expression could no longer be described as merely shocked.

He felt foolish.

Yes, how foolish! If only his grandfather, the head of the Shaw family at that time, had taken it seriously, he wouldn't have died so suddenly, leaving things unexplained. And his parents wouldn't have had to suffer the same fate!

All these years, Linden had been harboring resentment towards his grandfather's foolishness!

He was momentarily unable to accept it.

He couldn't understand why his grandfather would discard the formula just because of the cost. Didn't he consider his own health?

But now, there was no one left who could answer Linden's questions.

Linden picked up the contract, "So, the pharmaceutical company that later approached Shaw Industries did so not for money, but to save the lives of Shaw Industries' workers."