Queen of Wild Cards novel Chapter 377

At the Ford estate.

"Dad, our company's servers were just breached by hackers! The entire internal network is completely paralyzed!" Franklin's son yelled into the phone, panic lacing his voice.

"How could this happen?! Get the IT department to fix it immediately!" Franklin yelled back, stunned.

"The technicians can't break the virus protocol! Whoever did this is top-tier. They're locked out!" The son was so frantic he was practically hyperventilating.

"Well, find a way! Are we supposed to just sit here and watch our infrastructure burn?" Franklin knew exactly how devastating a paralyzed network could be.

At best, daily operations would grind to a halt. At worst, highly classified corporate data would be leaked. That would be a fatal blow.

"Dad, did we cross someone recently? Our security is solid. An unprovoked, high-level cyberattack makes no sense."

Hackers of this caliber didn't attack random targets. Someone with deep pockets had definitely put a hit on their servers.

Hearing his son's words, a name instantly flashed in Franklin's mind: Julius Blackwood.

Byron Jeter had already informed him about the disgraceful stunt Rhoda and Yvonne had pulled at the Blackwood Manor.

Since four days had passed without any retaliation against his business, Franklin had foolishly assumed Julius was letting it go. He clearly hadn't dodged the bullet after all.

Was Julius really that vindictive?

His wife walked away completely unscathed.

Rhoda suffered a horrifying punishment. Wasn't that enough to settle the score?

If Franklin had known about the six other times Rhoda had intentionally provoked Stella, he wouldn't have been so naive.

Unfortunately, he was completely in the dark, believing the Autumn Gala was an isolated incident.

"I understand. See if you can hire a better cybersecurity expert to break the encryption. I'll handle things on my end."

"Right. Fine. I'll let you go."

Finding an elite hacker wasn't just about having money—it required deep underground connections.

If high-level hackers were easily accessible to anyone with a checkbook, they would have all been arrested by now.

Franklin stared at his phone after hanging up, his mind racing.

Byron's company was untouched. Did that mean Julius was specifically targeting him?

Or was Julius letting the Jeters slide because of their long-standing family ties, focusing all his wrath exclusively on the Fords?

Because of the history between the Jeters and the Blackwoods.

The more Franklin analyzed it, the more convinced he became. And the more convinced he became, the more deeply he loathed Rhoda.