The Killer Queen

Tristan rubbed his temples; his voice was as cold as ice. “Vincent, right? Where you at now?”

“I’m at the hospital where Mr. Marcel’s staying! Some blind bat rammed into my wife! If you want a chat, Mr. Schnabel, you can come on over. Got a bunch of juicy secrets that could interest you!

Tristan had yet to meet someone who actually got him to make a house call. How could people. be so shamelessly thick–skinned?

Vincent hung up, still lost in his daydream about his soon–to–be rocketing success.

Mr. Schnabel must be intrigued by what he said: maybe he would even come to meet him in person. That would be his chance to call the shots the Lambert family’s troubles wouldn’t be a concern anymore!

As Vincent mulled over this, he dialed his secretary. “Tell those companies we can do without their partnership. Whatever they want, we’ll cough it up as per the contract!”

The secretary hesitated, “Boss, that’s gonna cost a pretty penny. We’d have to drain all our liquid assets.

Vincent couldn’t care less about that chump change.

“Chill, I’ve got a plan. North Peak Finance, South Mountain Financial, East Sea Culture Company. West Ocean Media – the companies that look down on us don’t matter. Soon, they’ll be the ones I look down on! Pfft! Just a bunch of nobodies! Once I’ve inked a deal with Mr. Schnabel, I’ll be strutting across Tranquility City!”

The secretary quickly agreed and went off to deal with the claim contracts from those companies.

Tristan hung up, fuming mad, feeling like his heart was going to burst!

“Damn the Lambert family! I was thinking since they raised Noella, I’d let bygories be bygones, but they’re crossing the line!”

Sienna, hearing it was the Lambert family on the phone, quickly asked, “What did they say? Definitely nothing good. Get rid of them fast. I heard they’re also at the hospital. We can’t let them bump into our precious girl. These people are insatiable and have no shame. If they see her, they’ll definitely bother her.”

Tristan was on the same page. “Should we send our little treasure to study abroad?”

Sienna shook her head, not liking the idea one bit. “Our girl hiding from them? Wherever our darling wants to study, she’ll study. She’s responsible for being happy; we’re responsible for keeping those people out of her sight! Besides, if we send our treasure abroad, wouldn’t that mean she’d hardly see Palmer? That’s not gonna help their relationship grow.”

11:13

The main thing was they couldn’t bear it! They had only just gotten their daughter back, and they wanted to see her every day!

“You’re right. I’ll arrange for someone to give that damn Vincent a beating! Heck, make it a buy one get one free – beat up his whole family!”

Tristan quickly sent out the message. Then, he called Noella, his voice dripping with fawning affection and tinged with caution.

“Hey, darling, it’s me. How’s your mood today? What have you been up to?”

“Pretty good. Played chess with Grandpa this morning, then went to buy gifts for my other grandparents with my brother in the afternoon.”

“Buying gifts, that’s great! Daddy’s gonna send you some pocket money right away, just a little something. Go and treat yourself; you’re looking too thin!”

Noella was speechless.

In the month or two since she got back, she had received who knows how much pocket money. Seeing her bank account balance now, Noella was a bit numb.

Without realizing it, she was living off her family’s generosity. “No need, I still have money.”

Tristan was nearly in tears! “Darling! Do you think our family’s too poor? Don’t worry, Daddy’s

going back to work tomorrow! You don’t have to worry about us?

Noella was at a loss for words.

The Schnabel family going broke? As if!

broke!”

If the Schnabel family ever did go broke one day, the GDP of Imperial City would take a twenty–year step back. Not to mention it was impossible for the Schnabel family to go bankrupt, but even if that day came, she had ways to make them bounce back.

“Alright, I got it.”

Tristan hung up, pleased as punch, and in a flash, Noella received a transfer of fifty million. Just after hanging up and transferring the money, Tristan’s expression turned cold again. “What on earth is Beckett doing? Why haven’t those two families gone bankrupt yet!”

They couldn’t sleep at night thinking about all the suffering their precious daughter had endured without making those two families pay.

Sienna thought for a moment and grabbed Tristan, “Let’s find a time to ask Beckett but keep it from our darling girl. She’s so kind–hearted, she’d definitely be upset.”

Thinking about Noella’s past, Tristan and Sienna burst into tears!

Damn the Lambert family!

11:14

Clapier SU

At the Lunar Lab

The whole lab was kitted out with the world’s most advanced equipment; even the sinks had been switched to automatic temperature–controlled ones, and they had added a bunch of new

greenery.

Noella walked into the lab wearing a white coat.

“Boss! Your conned fiancé really came through! He even swapped out our lab toilets for ones with auto–changing seats!”

“How did he know we’ve been dying for high–tech toilets? We were gonna bet on the loser to tweak the data and rig up a fully automated toilet!”

For this bunch of geniuses, tweaking a toilet’s data was a piece of cake.

Noella glanced at Phecda. “Where’s the experimental data?”

“Right here. Toxic Monarch’s got ten Mirage Grasses. Still MIA, could’ve hit the black market by This belongs © NôvelDra/ma.Org.

now.”

“Find a way to track it down.”

Phecda clutched his head and wailed, “This isn’t about finding a way or not! Our lab’s been growing Mirage Grass, too, but we’ve lost contact with the lab across the Pacific. No clue what Nolan and his crew are up to over there.”

“And we’re out of cash…”

The investment needed for medical experiments was massive, and Lunar Lab often found itself strapped for cash, with the big boss even having to doodle design drafts and open up a shop to make ends meet.

Noella whipped out a bunch of black cards and chucked them over. “This should cover it. I’ll figure out the rest of the dough.”

Phecda’s eyes practically turned into dollar signs! “All these black cards! Boss, did you knock over a bank or something?”

Megrez looked up from a mountain of experimental data. “Banks don’t even have this kind of cash. Boss definitely hit up a vault.”

“Holy smokes, Boss, you’re treading on thin ice with the whole crime gig. If one day the cuffs come on, don’t rat us out. We ain’t in the same boat as you.”

Speechless, Noella rubbed her temples and swiftly twirled her hair up with a hairpin hand–carved by Ulrich, revealing her slender, swan–like neck. “It’s just some pocket money from my family, all above

board.”

Members of the former Polaris Star generally avoided rubbing shoulders with the outside world due to their past experiences, hardly ever spending time watching TV or surfing the web.

They only knew their boss had recently switched parents but had no clue which family she had

rolled into.

“Pocket money! You’re calling Rising Glory Bank’s black cards pocket money! Boss, your family isn’t in with the mob, right?”

“Doesn’t the boss’s fiancé have deep pockets? When can we get hitched into that kind of wealth, too?”

They were itching to play the part of a maid and take a spin at being filthy rich! There would be no point in doing research if they were that wealthy!

Sick of the chatter, Noella grabbed the experimental data in her hand and smacked it down. “Scram. I want fresh data in three minutes, or you two are taking turns scrubbing the john.”

Phecda and Megrez beat it quick, without leaving a trace behind.