"Speak up! Have you all gone mute?"


    The boardroom was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.


    "Lloyd!" Seth barked.


    The man he called on flinched, stuttering, "Mr... Mr. Harcourt, this... this is something you should probably ask Ms. Lowell about."


    In that moment, Bianca felt a surge of humiliation.


    Seth''s gaze fell on her. His voice was still cold, but noticeably less harsh than when he''d addressed Lloyd.


    "Then perhaps Ms. Lowell can exin why Ascendancy Group''sputing chips have had a sixty percent defect rate for the past two quarters."


    The number shocked Bianca.


    She hadn''t been to Ascendancy Group for a while, busy with PerseTech and her graduate school applications.


    Especially during her intense study period, she had left everything in Spencer''s hands.


    But she never imagined the situation could have deteriorated this badly.


    "Excuse me, I need to review the documents first," Bianca said, her lips pressed into a thin line.


    Even without looking around, she could feel the eyes of everyone in the boardroom on her.


    The atmosphere in the room grew heavy, oppressive and hard to breathe, like a vacuum.


    Bianca felt as if a massive stone was crushing her chest, making it impossible to draw a full breath.


    The data in the report said it all. Ascendancy Group''s products had a major problem.


    A sixty percent defect rate was a fatal blow for anypany.


    Many long-term clients had lodged formalints, and some had terminated their contracts outright.


    The further she read, the more her heart sank.


    She thought quietly covering the three-hundred-million-dorpensation would be the end of it.


    She never expected... that was just the beginning.


    Thepensation Ascendancy Group was now facing would be more than a hundred times that amount.


    Bianca''s face went pale. She had never anticipated a disaster of this scale.


    "Mr. Harcourt, the stock market situation... it''s beyond saving," a shareholder said gravely.


    Ascendancy Group''s stock had already taken a massive hit during the Westbrook fireworks incident.


    It had limped along for a while, with hopes of a slow recovery.


    But then... the news of Bianca''s academic fraud broke, and investor confidencepletely copsed.


    A massive sell-off drove the stock


    price to all-time low, and the


    was now far the


    possibility of a forced delisting.


    Seth turned his back to the room and stood there for a long moment.


    Bianca clutched the documents in her hands, feeling like she was suffocating.


    After a while, Seth turned back around.


    His gaze swept over to her, his eyes dark and unreadable, yet carrying an immense pressure.


    "File for bankruptcy with the court."


    His terse words plunged the boardroom into a deathly silence.


    Bianca spent a long time in the restroom, steeling herself before she had the courage to face Seth.


    As she approached his office door, she heard voices from inside.


    "Mr. Harcourt, Ascendancy Group went bankrupt barely half a year after it was handed to Ms Lowell


    think... she might actually be bad luck."


    Bianca''s hand tightened on the doorknob.


    The speaker was Gerry, one of thepany''s old-timers.


    "Maybe you two shouldn''t get married after all!"


    Seth said, "Gerry, since when did you be so superstitious?"


    Gerry replied, "It''s not superstition, Mr. Harcourt. You can''t believe in this stuffpletely, but you can''t Lignoret either! I always thought your former secretary, Ms. Gilmore, brought you good luck."


    "I even had your astrological chartspared once. You two were a perfect match!"


    The conversation inside sent a chill through Bianca.


    She took a deep breath and pushed the door open, interrupting them.