Never Mistake a Queen for a Lapdog novel Chapter 231

“Noreen, I’m really sorry. I was out of line before—let me apologize. You’re the bigger person here, right? Don’t hold a grudge against me.”

For the first time ever, a pang of guilt seemed to hit Jude Wilder, and he actually apologized to Noreen Gilmore—sincerely, from the heart.

But when Noreen heard his apology, her expression turned oddly amused.

She raised an eyebrow. “Maybe you should take a look at this before you say anything else?”

Only then did Jude glance down at the document Noreen had handed him.

The bold letters at the top made his mind go blank.

Legal Notice?!

A legal notice? How was this possible?

Noreen said, “Since you’re here, I don’t have to make a special trip. It saves us both time.”

Jude was speechless.

Was she even speaking English? He’d come here to discuss working together, not to get slapped with a lawsuit!

“I have a meeting to get to, so I’ll leave you to it,” Noreen added, picking up her laptop and heading off to the conference room.

Jude was left fuming, completely at a loss.

No matter how he tried to wrap his head around it, he just couldn’t understand how Noreen could be so ruthless.

Fuming, he stormed over to Aurelion Group to complain to Seth Harcourt.

“Seth, tell me—how can Noreen be so heartless? We’ve known each other for ages, and you two dated for seven years! How could she be this cold? She sent me a legal notice!”

“She’s out of control! Shouldn’t you say something?”

Seth let out a rare sigh and slid a stack of paperwork across the desk toward him. “She doesn’t play favorites. She sent me a legal notice, too.”

Jude just stared.

He was still in shock when Bianca Lowell walked in. “Seth, you wanted to see me?”

Seth nodded. “This is for you.”

He pulled a document from the pile he’d just given Jude and handed it to Bianca.

“InnoCore had a forensic review done. SkyMind infringed on more than forty tech points—over ninety percent match or overlap, which legally counts as substantial infringement. So, InnoCore sent out legal notices, demanding full compensation for R&D costs and triple damages for commercial losses.”

Jude’s voice shook. “How much are we talking?”

Seth sighed again. “With InnoCore’s current valuation, triple damages are conservatively above a billion dollars—and that’s just today’s numbers; it’ll only go up.”

The office fell into stunned silence.

Jude wondered if his family would disown him by dinnertime.

“And Ascendancy Group got a legal notice, too,” Seth added. “The contract we signed to secure that partnership was heavily in Winrich’s favor. Now that we broke the agreement, we have to pay damages as stipulated.”

“How much this time?”

“At least another billion.”

Jude collapsed into his chair.

At this rate, Noreen could make two billion just from winning lawsuits…