<b>Chapter </b><b>231 </b>


    “Noreen, I’m really <b>sorry</b>. 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 nce down at the document Noreen had handed him.


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


    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’de here to discuss working together, not to get pped with


    awsuit!


    “I have a meeting to get to, so I’ll leave you to it,” Noreen added, picking up herptop and heading off


    to the conference room.


    Jude was left fuming,pletely 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 toin 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 y 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.


    Bianca nced at it, eyebrows knitting. “A legal notice?”


    Jude gaped. “You got one too?”


    13:02)


    “Don’t tell me it’s from Noreen?” <fn02d3> ???s ??????? ?s ?????? ?? find~novel</fn02d3>


    “What, is she sending these out wholesale?!”


    Bianca never imagined Noreen would p her with a legal notice.


    She scanned the page and realized: SkyMind was being used of misappropriating InnoCore’s trade secrets and illicitly acquiring their technology.


    Jude was implicated by association–he was one of SkyMind’s investors, after all.


    Trade secret vitions were no joke. If they admitted to this, their careers in the business world would be over.


    Bianca shook her head adamantly. “This is a false usation!”


    Seth said, “I looked into it. She’s got a solid chain of evidence.”


    He paused, fixing his gaze on Bianca. “Didn’t you recruit a bunch of InnoCore’s tech staff for SkyMind?”


    “Well… yes, that happened.”


    “InnoCore had a forensic review done. SkyMind infringed on more than forty tech points–over ny percent match or ovep, which legally counts as substantial infringement. So, InnoCore sent out legal notices, demanding fullpensation for R&D costs and triple damages formercial 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 dors–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<i>,</i><i>” </i>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 stipted.“.


    “How much this time?”


    “At least another billion.”


    Jude copsed into his chair.


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