Never Mistake a Queen for a Lapdog novel Chapter 271

The midday sun was blinding—so harsh that even after Seth Harcourt rolled up his car window, he still couldn’t shake it off.

But only he knew: in that moment, it wasn’t just the sunlight that stung his eyes.

Later that afternoon, Noreen Gilmore had to visit Carman Holt’s office. Once she’d finished her conversation with Padgett Novak, she said her goodbyes and headed out.

She had just reached the front steps when three people appeared, walking up from the street.

Leading them was Forrest Lowell, who had some business to attend to on this side of town.

He spotted Noreen standing on the steps and hesitated for a split second.

Turning to his companions, Forrest said he had something to take care of and asked them to go on ahead without him.

After the other two left, Noreen started down the steps as well.

Forrest called out, “Miss Gilmore.”

There was no one else around, and he’d addressed her by her surname. Even though she didn’t recognize him, Noreen slowed and glanced over her shoulder. “Are you talking to me?”

“Yes,” Forrest replied, wearing a pleasant smile. “Are you from Rivercrest City, Miss Gilmore?”

Noreen didn’t know who he was—certainly not that this was Bianca Lowell’s father. To her, he was just a stranger, so she wasn’t about to answer his questions.

She kept her tone polite but distant. “Sorry, I can’t help you with that.”

With that, she turned and walked away, leaving Forrest standing on the steps watching her retreating figure until she disappeared from sight. Only then did he slowly snap back to himself.

After a moment’s pause, he pulled out his phone and made a call. “I need you to look into someone for me.”

It didn’t take much effort to find information on Noreen. By the time Forrest finished his meeting, the report was waiting for him.

When he saw the word “deceased” written next to Father in the file, Forrest fell silent for a long time.

It turned out that a week ago, Seth had handed over management of Ascendancy Group to Bianca. Even before that, Noreen thought it was unusual for her to be involved; she never expected Seth to actually give Bianca full control.

It was generous to the point of being inexplicable.

Bianca running things was one thing, but she constantly nitpicked: one minute missing documents, the next needing extra proof. If something was missing, fine—but she never said everything at once, dragging the process out again and again.

The assistant had tried arguing their case, but Bianca’s team just twisted things around and accused them of lacking good faith.

After Noreen understood the situation, she told Carman, “I’ll go to Ascendancy Group tomorrow. If anything like this happens again, come straight to me and I’ll handle it.”

Once the work talk was over, Noreen drove to the airport to pick up someone very important.

There were far fewer people at the VIP arrivals exit than at the main one. Noreen waited there for Claire Chase.

As soon as the plane landed, Claire texted her: just landed, waiting to disembark.