Seeing his hurried pace and pale face, Joanna suddenly had a bad feeling.


    Before she could ask, Horace spoke anxiously, "Ms. Scott, this is bad. Thepany we acquired from Wendy, it''s an empty shell. All the tech staff resigned one by one over the past month. Their contracts were up. We were in too much of a rush and overlooked a lot of things. Besides the building, thepany ispletely empty. It''s just a hollowed-out corporation."


    "The core team had been with Wendy for years. After she left, the entire tech department walked out."


    "And all those clients who promised to sign with us? As soon as they heard our technical team was gone, they all backed out of their agreements."


    "What?" Joanna was stunned. Her eyes widened in disbelief, and she staggered back a few steps, copsing onto the sofa.


    How could this happen?


    She had stayed away from thepany recently to avoid raising suspicion, but she never imagined it would be a shell.


    She roared in anger, "What about Nora? What has she been doing? Didn''t she try to keep the tech staff? And those clients had already reached an agreement with us. Why did they suddenly back out?"


    Joanna didn''t understand. Everything was supposed to be under control, and now it had spiraled out. She couldn''t ept this oue.


    Horace couldn''t figure it out either. Everything had seemed to be going ording to n, so how did it all fall apart so suddenly?


    He said in a low voice, "The tech staff initially agreed to everything. They said they''d take a few days off and thene back to work. But after they left, they moved out of the area and have no intention of returning. We can''t reach them by phone, and the home addresses they gave us were fake."


    "They didn''t leave all at once. It was one or two every few days. When the partners we were negotiating with heard that our tech team was gone, they alterminated their contracts.. Now thepany has nothing but


    the building."


    "Those partners only care about profits and the promises we made. Without a technical team, they''re afraid of losing money, so they won''t work with us anymore."


    Joanna''s mind went nk.


    Seeing her devastated look,


    Horace''s heart ached. All the money she had earned over the years had been poured into acquiring Wendy''spany, and she was no longer receiving the five million dors a month from Sebastian.


    Now, she only had her otherpanies to rely on.


    Joanna sat there, stunned and silent. It felt like the blood was flowing backward in


    her veins. She had never imagined this, not even in her wildest dreams.


    Seeing her pained expression,


    Horace continued, "Ms. Scott, you haven''t been home for the past few days. The stock market has been incredibly vtile. The stock we invested in plummeted, while the one that had previously hit rock bottom suddenly skyrocketed.


    "I saw Marshall there when I went. He and Natalie both invested in the surging stock


    and made a killing. All the money we put into the market is gone."


    This double blow made Joanna''s body sway. A wave of heat washed over her, and she fainted from the shock.


    Horace rushed over, shouting frantically, "Ms. Scott! Ms. Scott, wake up!"


    Joanna''s face was pale and bloodless. Outside, Colin, who had been standing there, witnessed the scene and a faint smile crossed his lips. *Joanna, this time, your little scheme backfired.*