Silas was speechless. Sundara's regulations regarding minors were even stricter than those in Solenia.
But whether Meiko had been willing or forced remained a mystery.
The child could be the ultimate leverage against her, which was exactly why Claire brought it up.
Silas gave a firm nod of understanding.
However, his tactical approach differed from Claire's.
Since Meiko had maintained such a deep cover, she wouldn't crack easily.
Interrogating her now, with so little solid intel, would only give her the chance to feed them misdirection.
It was much smarter to run a deep background check on her first.
Once they mapped out her entire profile, they could break her down during the interrogation and extract the truth.
But there was no need to bore Claire with the bureaucratic strategy.
Claire didn't realize Silas had already thought three steps ahead.
To reach his rank at such a young age, the man was clearly a mastermind.
She wasn't a detective, so she left the interrogation tactics to the professionals.
Seeing that the timing was right, she headed in to face Frederick Vane.
Vane looked even more ragged than the night before, gasping for air as if his lungs were about to give out at any second.
He was hooked up to an oxygen tank, looking utterly pathetic.
But Claire didn't feel an ounce of sympathy for the old bastard.
"Mr. Vane, I heard you wanted to see me?" Claire evaluated him coolly.
Seeing the ashen pallor of his skin, she knew the devastating toll this total operational failure had taken on him.
Vane slowly lifted his head and met her gaze. "You finally came."
"Yeah, so spit it out. Make it quick before I head home to sleep."
The chaos last night had robbed Claire of her rest, leaving her with dark circles under her eyes.
She stifled a yawn, genuinely exhausted.
The adrenaline crash after hours of high-tension survival always hit the hardest.
"Aren't you the least bit curious about what happened to your parents?"
"Or did you already track them down?" Vane asked, his eyes locked onto her.
He scrutinized every micro-expression on her face.
Claire wasn't stupid. She immediately caught on-Vane was fishing for intel on her parents.
"Are you this obsessed with my parents because you were jealous of my father, or because your got over my mother rejecting you?
Vane choked on his breath.
The dossier on Claire explicitly stated she was a quiet, introverted girl who had been raised in the Wamily and relentlessly beaten down by her adoptive mother.
Who would have guessed that breaking free from that toxic household would completely alter her personality?
If Claire knew Vane had commissioned a psychological profile on her, she would have found it hilarious.
His intel only covered the mask she wore.
Around people who despised her, she naturally kept her walls up.
Besides, she never had anything in common with Octavia or the shallow socialites in that circle anyway.
It was never her true nature.
When shedived in the countryside
with
she was the type of girl
the happily grab a needle to
try and cute a sick pig Conten
While she might not have been as chaotic as the other kids, calling her 'introverted'
was a massive stretch.
She was simply grounded.
But that didn't mean she couldn't tear someone apart with her words.
"Jealous of your father? Why would anyone be jealous of a broke academic?"
"He was as stubborn as an ox, completely blind to the golden opportunities right in front of him."
"I heard he even eloped with your mother, making her abandon a perfectly excellent fiancé just for him?"
"..." Vane spewed a stream of venomous curses, utterly triggered by Claire's provocation.