Reborn CEO: Kicking Out the Ingrate Son-in-Law

Chapter 2: Investigation and Control

Chapter 2: Investigation and Control

The next morning, Emma arrived at the Su Group headquarters at eight-thirty.

The building rose forty stories into the sky, its glass facade catching the morning sun and scattering light across the plaza below. Her parents had built this company from nothing, brick by brick, deal by deal. She would not let Lucas tear it apart.

"Good morning, Emma," the receptionist said softly as she walked past. "Please accept my condolences."

"Thank you," Emma replied, keeping her expression carefully neutral.

She took the elevator to the top floor, where her office occupied the entire southeast corner. The space was achingly familiar—her father's mahogany desk, her mother's favorite landscape painting on the wall, the panoramic sweep of the city skyline through floor-to-ceiling windows. Every object held a memory. Every memory carried a weight.

But everything felt different now. The air itself seemed heavier, charged with something she could not yet name.

She sat behind the desk and opened her laptop. Before she could begin, her phone buzzed.

Lucas: How are you feeling? Need me to come in?

Emma stared at the message. In her previous life, she would have been touched by his concern, grateful for his attentiveness. Now she saw it for exactly what it was—a calculated check on her activities, a probe disguised as tenderness.

Emma: I'm fine. Staying home today.

Lucas: Good. Rest. I'll handle everything.

Emma: Thank you.

She set the phone down with deliberate care. Let him believe she was grieving at home, wrapped in sorrow and helplessness. It would buy her the time she desperately needed.

At nine o'clock, a quiet knock sounded at her door.

"Come in."

Director Wang entered, closing the door firmly behind him. He was in his late fifties, with silver threading through his hair and the kind of serious, weathered expression that came from decades of navigating corporate storms. He had been with the company for twenty years, loyal first to her parents, and now—she hoped—to her.

"Emma," he said quietly, settling into the chair across from her desk. "I'm sorry for your loss. Truly."

"Thank you, Director Wang. I appreciate you coming." She leaned forward, folding her hands on the desk. "I need to understand the current state of the company. Specifically, what decisions have been made in the past two weeks."

Director Wang's expression tightened almost imperceptibly. "You mean since the accident?"

"Yes. Since my parents passed away."

He was silent for a long moment, his gaze drifting to the window and the city beyond. Then he said, "Emma, I don't want to speak ill of anyone, especially not now. But some things have concerned me deeply."

"Tell me," she said. "Please."

"Lucas has been making a great many decisions. Transferring substantial funds, reassigning key personnel, signing new contracts with unfamiliar vendors. He claims it's all necessary to keep operations running smoothly during this difficult transition, but..." He trailed off, his brow furrowing.

"But?" Emma prompted, her voice steady despite the cold knot forming in her stomach.

"Some of the transfers don't make business sense. Large sums moving to accounts I've never encountered in two decades here. Experienced employees being reassigned to positions far below their capabilities. And the new contracts—they heavily favor certain suppliers in ways that exceed normal commercial relationships."

Emma's hands clenched beneath the desk, her nails digging into her palms. So it's already started. The systematic dismantling had begun even before the funeral flowers wilted.

"Which employees were reassigned?" she asked.

"Three from finance, two from legal, and the head of IT security was replaced entirely."

IT security. The words hit her like ice water. If Lucas controlled the IT systems, he could access everything—emails, contracts, financial records, internal communications. He could erase evidence, plant false trails, monitor her own movements within the company network.

"Who is the new head of IT?" she asked, managing to keep her voice level.

"A man named Zhang. Lucas brought him in, said he came highly recommended. But I couldn't find any substantial background on him. No previous employment records that checked out. Nothing."

Emma filed the name away in her mind. Zhang would need to be investigated, thoroughly and quietly.

"What about Director Li?" she asked. "The CFO?"

Director Wang hesitated, and in that hesitation, Emma read the answer before he spoke.

"He's been working very closely with Lucas. Unusually close. They're in meetings several times a day, sometimes after hours."

So Li has been bought. Or threatened. Or both. Another piece falling into place, another thread in the web Lucas was weaving around her.

"Thank you, Director Wang," Emma said. "I need you to do something for me. Quietly gather detailed information on all recent transfers, contract changes, and personnel moves. Copies of everything, but don't alert anyone. And I mean anyone. Keep this conversation strictly between us."

He nodded, his eyes meeting hers with something that might have been respect. "I understand. I'll begin immediately."

After Director Wang left, Emma sat motionless for several minutes, staring at the cityscape beyond her window. Then she picked up her phone and called her lawyer.

"Mr. Chen, I need you to review every power of attorney I've signed in the past two weeks. Every document, every authorization, no matter how minor it seemed at the time."

"Of course, Emma. I'll have a comprehensive report for you by tomorrow morning."

"One more thing," she said. "I need you to find out exactly what company information Lucas Lin has access to. Every system, every account, every confidential document. I want a complete inventory."

A pause stretched across the line. "Emma, are you... concerned about something specific?"

"Just gathering information," she said, keeping her tone light. "Thank you, Mr. Chen."

She hung up and turned to her computer. She needed to see for herself what was happening inside her own company.

She logged into the financial system using her credentials—and found that her access had been quietly downgraded.

He's already moved against me.

She could still view most general reports, but critical folders were now locked behind new permissions she did not possess. The IT security logs. The vendor contracts. The board meeting minutes from the past month. The restricted files formed a pattern, and the pattern had Lucas's fingerprints all over it.

Lucas had been very busy indeed.

That afternoon, Emma met with a private investigator in a quiet café across town, one she had never visited before and would not visit again.

"I need you to investigate three subjects," she said, sliding a folded piece of paper across the scarred wooden table. "Lucas Lin, Bella Bai, and a company called Zhao Group."

The investigator, a middle-aged man with sharp, assessing eyes, glanced at the names without touching the paper. "What kind of information are you looking for?"

"Everything," Emma said. "Where they go, who they meet, financial transactions, business relationships, personal connections. Any links between them, however tenuous. And for Zhao Group specifically—I want to know if they have any relationship with Bella Bai or Lucas Lin, direct or indirect."

"That will take time and resources."

"How soon can you provide preliminary results?"

"Three days. Maybe four, depending on what I find."

"Do it," Emma said. "Money is not a problem. Discretion is."

The investigator nodded, pocketing the paper with a smooth, practiced motion. "You'll hear from me."

That evening, Emma returned home to find Lucas in the living room, playing with Leo on the carpet. The scene was achingly domestic, deliberately so.

"Daddy, stop!" Leo was laughing, breathless, as Lucas tickled him mercilessly.

Emma's heart twisted with a pain that felt physical. In her previous life, she had watched scenes like this and felt warm, content, blessed. She had believed Lucas loved their son with the same fierce devotion she did. Now she knew the devastating truth—Leo had never been anything more than a tool to him, a prop in the performance of normalcy, a lever to manipulate her emotions.

"Welcome home," Lucas said, standing with an easy smile. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," Emma said, forcing warmth into her voice. "I went for a long walk. Cleared my head."

"That's good. You need to rest, really rest. Don't worry about the company or anything else."

Don't worry about the company. The words slid over her skin like oil, smooth and suffocating.

"I won't," she said, meeting his eyes with what she hoped looked like trust. "I trust you completely."

Lucas's smile widened, reaching his eyes in a way that would have once made her melt. "I'm glad to hear that. It means everything to me."

He reached out to touch her face, his fingers brushing her cheek, and Emma forced herself not to flinch, not to recoil, not to reveal the revulsion that roiled in her stomach like poison.

"I'm tired," she said, stepping back with what she hoped appeared to be natural exhaustion. "I'm going to bed early."

"Of course. Goodnight, Emma."

She walked upstairs, Leo trailing behind her with the sleepy, contented gait of a child who had played hard.

At the door of his room, Leo paused, looking up at her with eyes that were suddenly, startlingly serious. "Mommy?"

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"Are you okay?" he asked, his small face searching hers with a worry that no six-year-old should carry. "You seem sad."

Emma looked down at her son, at the innocence Lucas would eventually try to corrupt or destroy, and felt something fierce and unbreakable rise within her.

"I'm okay," she said aloud, her voice soft but steady. "Go to sleep now. School tomorrow."

Leo nodded, apparently satisfied, and disappeared into his room.

Emma stood in the hallway for a long moment, listening to the soft click of his door closing, the rustle of his bedtime routine beginning beyond the wood.

Three days, she thought. In three days, she would know more about what Lucas was planning, who he was working with, how deep the conspiracy ran.

And then she would start taking everything back. Piece by piece. Account by account. Until nothing remained of the empire he thought he was building on the ruins of her family.

End of Chapter 2