She Left She Thrived She’s Worth Billions novel Chapter 512

After Melanie Royce left, Preston Whitmore appeared in Gabriel's office.

"Good job."

Preston patted Gabriel on the shoulder.

"Of course. If you ask me to do something, I'm going to nail it! But... is this really a good idea? Why is Melanie so hellbent on dragging her own name through the mud?"

Gabriel still couldn't wrap his head around it.

Melanie's improvements to the extraction technology had received unanimous praise from the Stellaris PharmaTech R&D department, and Regina Lane, the team lead, had even offered to pay her a hefty patent fee.

Yet, Melanie had refused every single penny, and instead asked Stellaris to spread rumors that her formula had major flaws and was single-handedly stalling the cold medicine project.

Only a handful of top executives in the R&D department knew the truth.

They were Stellaris's most trusted inner circle.

They all knew Preston's true identity, but they had kept their mouths shut around Melanie.

While they didn't understand the reasoning behind spreading these rumors, they weren't about to say no when both Preston and Gabriel had personally asked for their help.

Now, the gossip was spreading like wildfire, and aside from the few people in the know, everyone else genuinely believed Melanie's formula was a complete disaster.

"This is going to ruin her reputation, isn't it? She did all the heavy lifting..."

Gabriel muttered, still feeling it was incredibly unfair.

In truth, Preston didn't know the full extent of Melanie's plan either.

She hadn't shared the details, likely because she didn't want him to worry.

He hadn't pushed her for answers.

He trusted her implicitly.

Besides, he could already guess her endgame.

Once the rumors saturated their social circles, whoever made the first move was the exact fish Melanie was trying to catch.

"It doesn't matter. Her reputation... I'll restore it when the time comes."

"..."

Gabriel's barrage of questions was met with Preston's heavy silence.

For the first time, a suffocating tension filled the office.

After a long pause, Preston finally spoke.

"The bottom line is, this has nothing to do with you. Stop digging into it."

Gabriel opened his mouth, wanting to argue that Preston and Melanie's business was his business, but the sharp warning in Preston's eyes made him snap his jaw shut.

At that same moment, at the Royce Group headquarters.

Melanie and Aria Royce were summoned to Nathaniel Royce's office.

Dominic Hale was already there, waiting.

"Melanie, regarding the Stellaris project... we're going to let Aria take the lead, and you and Dominic will focus on supporting her."