Dark Lord Seduction System: Taming Wives, Daughters, Aunts, and CEOs novel Chapter 269

Chapter 269: The Avalanche

At exactly 2:47 PM Eastern, Rivera Next Media dropped their nuke: "The Billion Dollar Fraud: How Charlotte Thompson Bought Her Way Through Harvard and Stanford."

Thirty seconds later it was everywhere — seventeen outlets copy-pasting like middle schoolers cheating on a history test.

CNN slapped on their screaming red banner: "TECH CEO ACCUSED OF ACADEMIC FRAUD."Fox News rolled in three minutes late, as usual, with: "ELITE COLLEGE CORRUPTION: Did Quantum Tech CEO Buy Her Degrees?"

The New York Times chimed in: "Thompson Tech Empire Heir Allegedly Purchased Academic Credentials."

The Washington Post topped it with: "Harvard, Stanford Face Questions Over Wealthy Student’s Degrees."

In under ten minutes, the media was chewing its own tail like digital piranhas, each outlet desperate not to be the one guy who shows up late to the meme.

The conference room detonated.

Dr. Whitmore’s phone blew up like it had been strapped to a Samsung Galaxy Note 7. His voice cracked across the table: "Patricia, we need you on with the president immediately—CNN’s running it!"

Dean Micha went Casper-white, his phone buzzing with seventeen missed calls from Stanford PR. Professor Manning looked like he’d just watched his retirement account implode, texts flying in from alumni presidents and board members.

Dr. Kim tried juggling three calls at once, hands shaking, headset slipping like she was auditioning for Worst Crisis Manager Alive.

On the video screens, remote participants were typing so hard you could practically hear carpal tunnel forming, phones pressed to ears, the academic order collapsing into total clown circus.

"Jesus fucking Christ," Whitmore muttered, scrolling as if doomscrolling harder might undo it. "They’ve got financial records. Transaction amounts."

And Charlotte? She just sat there, legs crossed, calm as a Bond villain watching the missile launch. Detached. Dangerous. Stunning. Like victory in designer pants.

ARIA’s voice whispered through my earpiece: "Master, Quantum Tech’s stock price is in freefall. Down eighteen percent in the first five minutes of trading."

I pulled out my phone and watched the carnage unfold in real time. The stock ticker showed QT plummeting from $847 per share to $694 in minutes. Each refresh brought new lows as automated trading algorithms reacted to the flood of negative news coverage.

CNBC had already gone full funeral mode: "QUANTUM TECH STOCK CRASHES ON FRAUD ALLEGATIONS." Talking heads debated Charlotte’s future like she wasn’t sitting five feet away, speculating about SEC investigations, CEO replacements, and "loss of public trust" like they’d trademarked the phrase.

Bloomberg Terminals lit up like Vegas. Institutional investors were getting slaughtered, pension funds screaming, hedge funds panic-selling like crypto bros in a Discord crash channel.

Even the Dow took a sympathy nosedive, forty points gone in minutes, as if tech stocks were contagious.

Billions evaporating in real time.

Media baying for blood.

Instagram influencers were posting reaction vids faster than their PR teams could say "cancelled", followers flooding the comments with fire emojis, shocked faces, and passive-aggressive lectures about ethics.

Reddit’s r/news was climbing front-page fame like a caffeinated squirrel on a ladder — thousands of upvotes, comments ranging from outrage to "which other billionaire families are cooking up this mess?"

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify