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Novel Catalog
Chapter 68
Archie and Benny couldn’t help but compare Aubree to their mother, Roxanne, from head to toe. After carefully considering, they both decided that Aubree was clearly no match for their mother.
Daddy actually abandoned Mommy for that woman? How could he have been so blind?
After silently condemning Lucian for a while, Archie suddenly recalled their conversation in the restaurant. He leaned closer to Roxanne and asked, “Mommy, what did you mean when you said that the woman sabotaged you? Did she pick on you?”
Roxanne, wanting to shield her sons from the tension, casually dismissed it. “It’s nothing, just a work issue. It’s all resolved now.”
But no sooner had she spoken than Archie’s determined voice rang out beside her. “So, she did pick on you! What happened? Tell us, Mommy!”
His face, usually full of innocence, was now serious, his little brows furrowed in a way far beyond his years.
“Remember, we promised no secrets between us. You can’t lie to us, Mommy!” Benny added, his voice firm, a perfect echo of his brother’s resolve.
Roxanne sighed, feeling a wave of exasperation. She had almost forgotten how perceptive Archie and Benny were. Their intelligence was extraordinary for their age.
With a reluctant glance at their earnest faces, Roxanne finally relented and told them everything. She explained how Aubree had collaborated with the medicinal herb suppliers in Horington to block her research institute.
The boys listened intently, their hands clenching into small, angry fists. “That woman is just… evil!” Archie muttered, his voice filled with righteous fury.
“Everything is fine now, so please don’t do anything rash,” Roxanne said gently, trying to calm their fiery spirits.
Both boys nodded obediently, but inside, they simmered with anger, the injustice of it all burning in their young hearts.
Once they were home, Roxanne went to take a bath, and the boys saw their opportunity. They snuck into the study, their eyes gleaming with mischief.
Archie whispered something to Benny, his voice low and conspiratorial. Benny’s eyes lit up as he nodded, his fingers flying across the keyboard of his laptop. Within moments, they had hacked into Pearson Group’s system.
By the time Roxanne emerged from her bath, the boys were already tucked into bed, their faces feigning innocence. They looked up at her with wide eyes, pretending to be clueless. “Mommy, can you tell us a bedtime story?”
The next morning, Aubree was rudely awakened by the ringing of her phone. Her face twisted into an expression of displeasure.
Having been up late after learning that Lucian had met Roxanne the night before, she was already in a foul mood. She had gone to bed seething, and now, to be disturbed so early, only added fuel to the fire.
“What is it?” she snapped into the phone, impatience evident in her tone.
“Ms. Pearson, please come to the office immediately! There’s a serious problem with the company’s system!” Charles’s frantic voice echoed from the other end of the line.
Aubree’s eyes snapped open in alarm. She quickly got out of bed, washed up, and rushed to the office.
When she arrived, she was met with chaos. The entire company’s system had crashed. Employees stood around with strange expressions, while the technical team scrambled to fix the issue. Yet, no matter what they tried, nothing worked.
When Aubree walked in, all the employees lowered their heads in unison, as if hiding something. The technicians wore grim expressions, clearly at a loss.
“What’s going on here?” she demanded, her voice icy. “Why is everyone standing around uselessly while you can’t fix this?”
She marched toward the computers, fury rising in her chest. But as soon as her eyes fell on the screen, her face turned beet red with rage.
Two cartoon characters were fighting on the screen.
One of the characters was beating up the other—its face was marked with Aubree’s name, and the words “evil woman” were written clearly across its shirt. The other character, which was delivering the blows, had a speech bubble that read, “Let’s pummel the evil woman!”
It was clear as day: someone had targeted her with this vicious virus.
