chapter1164

After Nathaniel went off on her, even Mandy, who was usually tough as nails, couldn't help but feel her face heat up with embarrassment. She hated to admit it, but everything Nathaniel pointed out was the truth. Still, in her mind, it didn't change one simple fact-Mabel and Benjamin were siblings. That bond couldn't just disappear.

She wiped her tears away with the back of her hand, giving Mabel a pleading look. "Mabel, I know you're angry with your brother, but he's still your family. When you were kids, he took care of you, right? He used to carry you on his back and do whatever it took to make you smile. He even took the blame from your parents for your mistakes. Doesn't any of that matter to you?"

This was emotional blackmail, plain and simple.

Sure, Benjamin had treated her well when they were little. But people change. It was Benjamin who changed first, hurting Mabel again and again. Mabel and the Robinsons had forgiven them more times than they could count. Now, Mabel's heart was completely closed off to them.

She stared at Mandy, her voice ice-cold. "You don't have to bring up the past. I barely remember those days anymore. The truth is, we can't help you. And let's be honest, if Benjamin really has nothing to hide, why would he be afraid of an investigation? William was investigated over and over again before he took office. He survived it just fine."

Mabel's words left Mandy at a loss. She was right, but the truth was, Benjamin hadn't earned his position as Chief of Protocol through his own abilities. There was no way he could survive a real investigation. How could Mandy admit that out loud though?

Nathaniel just crossed his arms and scoffed. "If you didn't want this to happen, you shouldn't have acted that way in the first place. Did you really think our family would just let you walk all over us?"

Mr. Robinson let out a long sigh as he watched Mandy fall apart. "William just went through his own investigation. If Benjamin can handle the scrutiny, he'll get his job back. But if he's done something wrong, no one will be able to help him.

Mandy felt like her entire world was collapsing. The Gibson family's troubles just kept piling up.

While the drama with Rosie was finally dying down, Lydia got a message from Dustin. Grace's phone had finally been repaired, but the data was a mess and needed to be recovered. Their tech team wasn't skilled enough to handle it, so this was Lydia's domain.

Lydia headed straight to the police station, picked up the phone, and sat down in front of a computer. Only Dustin and the chief knew about the investigation, because the case was that sensitive. In her panic, Grace had reset the phone to factory settings before she tossed it, bur Lydia was famous for a reason. She was J, the legendary hacker.

Still, even for her, recovering the data took a while. When she finally pulled up the files, she was completely blown away. She never would have guessed just how much evil Grace and Night Eagle had been involved in together.

Dustin stood by, just as shocked. He couldn't believe what he was seeing-Grace had hidden everything so well.

Lydia had met all kinds of people, but even she had underestimated Grace. The side Grace showed to the world was only one part of the story.

All these years, Grace had been running illegal operations for Night Eagle behind the scenes. Drug trafficking, human trafficking, child abductions-they were mixed up in everything. The chat logs were full of clues, but there was still a lot of work to do before they could pr?ve anything for certain. These threads came from the oldest messages on the phone.

Grace had only switched to this phone in the last couple of years, so anything that happened before

was on a different device, out of Lydia's reach. Judging from the

most recent conversations,

could see their latest

Lydia

plan-swapping people out with clones.