The world, which had just begun to open up for Snow, suddenly tilted on its axis. While Andreas and his teams meticulously built their case against Ravenna and Alex, Grumpy, relentless in his pursuit of every hidden truth, unearthed the most devastating secret of all.
His findings arrived on Andreas's desk, not in a neat dossier, but a solemn, almost trembling email. It detailed the true, horrifying cause of Snow's father's death, a secret buried so deep, so carefully, that its revelation felt like an earthquake.
Snow's father had died of an aggressive form of cancer, not a sudden, mysterious illness. And the source? A specialized "ecosystem facial cream" Snow had created in her ambitious youth. It was meant to be revolutionary, designed to regenerate youthful skin tone using a unique blend of organic compounds. But a catastrophic, unforeseen flaw had turned it into a silent killer. An unknown bacteria, either introduced during a moment of youthful carelessness or a tragic, unavoidable scientific anomaly, had contaminated the batch used by her father, damaging his facial tissues and aggressively mutating, leading to the cancer that ultimately claimed his life.
The report continued with a chilling detail: Snow's father, in his final days, had understood the truth. In a heartbreaking act of paternal love and sacrifice, he had made Ravenna promise him one thing: Snow would never find out. He wanted to protect her from the crushing burden of guilt, from the knowledge that her own creation had inadvertently killed him. He loved her too much to let her live with that.
This agonizing truth was the real reason behind the corporate coup. Ravenna, fueled by her own twisted ambition and a desperate, though misguided, promise to her dying husband, had forced those eleven board members to vote against Snow. It wasn't just about greed; it was about stopping Snow from ever producing such "dangerous" products again, to extinguish the very innovative spirit that had led to her father's demise. She had used the threat of exposure, the financial ruin, and in Mr. Frank's case, his darkest secret, to ensure their compliance. Her cruelty was layered with a perverse sense of fulfilling a deathbed promise, ensuring Snow never touched a lab again.
Grumpy presented his findings to Andreas first. Andreas, for once, was speechless, the weight of the revelation settling heavily upon him. This was the deepest wound, the source of all Snow's trauma, carefully concealed by the very man who loved her most. He knew he had to tell Snow, but the thought of delivering such a devastating blow tore at him.
He found Snow in her lab, the place where her brilliance often shone brightest, yet ironically, where the seeds of her greatest tragedy had been sown. He gently guided her to a quiet corner, the scent of her organic compounds now seeming to mock the dark truth he was about to unveil.
"Snow," he began, his voice raspy, "Grumpy… he found something. About your father."
As Andreas recounted the horrific details, Snow listened, her face paling, her breath coming in ragged gasps. Her eyes, wide with disbelief, filled with a profound, soul-shattering anguish. The room spun around her, the familiar comfort of her lab turning into a suffocating chamber of guilt and despair. The betrayal, the coma, the public humiliation – all of it now paled in comparison to the agonizing thought that she was the cause of her father's death. It was a truth more bitter, more devastating, than any lie. She felt raw, utterly broken.