Family on Their Knees Heart Turned to Ice novel Chapter 740

Lillian froze, her raised hand pausing in mid-air before she slowly lowered it in confusion.

She immediately shot a questioning look at Emma.

As the company president, Emma hadn't been alerted to any security breaches. She quickly stepped forward. "Don't worry, Ms. Mercer. I'll go see what's happening."

Lillian nodded tightly. "Do it."

Down on the tarmac, Celia Bennett looked equally bewildered, staring up at the command deck to see why the launch had been halted.

A few minutes later, Emma came sprinting back, completely out of breath.

"Ms. Mercer, it's those people... they're back."

Lillian's mind was entirely consumed by telemetry and payload capacities. It took her a second to process the vague warning. "Who?"

Before Emma could answer, Celia Bennett came rushing up the stairs to the deck.

Her face was completely drained of color, her eyes wide with sheer panic.

"Ms. Mercer... they came back for me. They're like ghosts, they just won't stop. They're here."

Even with Lillian standing firmly behind her, the dark shadow of her past still held her in a terrifying grip.

The moment she heard her abusers were back, a deep, instinctual terror seized her.

The suffocating trap of her rural hometown, the leeching parents and toxic relatives who had tried to bleed her dry for years.

When would they ever just let her go?

Seeing the raw terror in Celia's eyes, it finally clicked for Lillian.

They had tracked her down again.

The last time this happened, Lillian had stepped in, weaponized the legal system, and had them all locked up.

She never expected them to crawl back so quickly.

Lillian turned a sharp gaze onto Emma. "What's the situation at the perimeter?"

"It's exactly like last time, they're blocking the main gates, but they're even more aggressive now," Emma reported. "They're demanding to see you by name, Ms. Mercer. They're saying you humiliated them and made them suffer in a cell, and now they want payback."

"Nathan, this doesn't concern you. Leave your security detail with me, and get out of here before the riot gets worse. Take Victor back to headquarters with you.

"And pack up the prototypes. If they break through the perimeter, the last thing we need is our tech getting destroyed in the crossfire. It would set us back months."

Nathan frowned. "You're not leaving?"

"I have to stay," Lillian said firmly. She glanced at Celia, whose face was still a mask of pure terror. If Lillian walked away now, Celia would completely shatter.

The poor girl had been fighting a losing battle against her family for years; the psychological damage was deep.

Lillian couldn't abandon her. She had to hold the line.

More importantly, she needed a strategy to eradicate this problem permanently.

Applying a band-aid solution and letting these parasites continuously sabotage Celia's life—and the company's progress—was unacceptable.

Celia was a brilliant asset, and Lillian absolutely refused to let her be ruined.

Putting an end to the vultures at the gates, once and for all, was now the only thing that mattered.