Never Mistake a Queen for a Lapdog novel Chapter 1042

Half an hour later, the profile pictures attached to those accounts went dark one by one, displaying notices that the users had been banned for violating community guidelines.

The once-deafening digital battlefield went dead silent.

Sophia stared at the tablet, her jaw dropping as she watched the negative data metrics rapidly flatline to zero. "How... how did this happen? There were millions of people cursing us just a moment ago..."

Noreen glanced up from her work.

Sophia quickly handed over the tablet, explaining the source of her shock.

Noreen raised an eyebrow. A thought suddenly crossed her mind, and she pulled out her phone to dial a number.

The call connected almost instantly, and a sweet, youthful voice came through the speaker. "Mom."

"Why aren't you asleep yet?" Noreen asked Katy Joyner gently.

With the time difference, it was late at night where the girl was, long past her bedtime.

"I was just about to," Katy replied.

"Did you hack those accounts?"

Knowing she couldn't hide it, Katy confessed. "I don't like it when they say mean things about you."

In her eyes, Noreen was the absolute best person in the entire world!

What right did a bunch of strangers have to hurl abuse at her?

Noreen let out a helpless sigh. "Leave the grown-up business alone. Be good and go to sleep."

Katy always listened to Noreen, so she readily agreed.

Not long after the call ended, Sophia frantically knocked on the door again, her panic palpable. "Bad news, Ms. Gilmore. Director Yates and the others have called for an emergency board meeting. I heard..."

She trailed off, trembling, too afraid to finish her sentence.

Director Yates slammed his hand on the table so hard water sloshed out of his glass. "Rumors are flying everywhere, and the stock has hit rock bottom! If you don't come up with a solution right now, our entire net worths are going down with Winrich!"

The other directors chimed in with their own furious agreements, their collective anxiety and rage permeating the confined space.

Every set of eyes was fixed on the silent woman sitting at the head of the long table.

Noreen sat in the dim light, her slender fingers idly tracing the contours of her fountain pen. Her expression was completely apathetic, as if the disastrous red numbers on the screen had absolutely nothing to do with her.

Faced with Director Yates's roaring demands, she still didn't say a word. Her silence only dialed the tension in the room up to a breaking point.

"Say something! When you dragged us into this, you swore up and down that our investments were safe!"

Director Yates was seeing red. He shot up from his chair and jabbed a finger at her. "You promised that if the company ever faced catastrophic operational risks or abnormal stock volatility, you would buy back our shares at the original price! Are you trying to back out now?"

At the mention of a 'buyback', the movement of Noreen's fingers finally came to a halt.