[This Miss Gonzales is disgusting! I bet she did it on purpose, just to provoke Professor Smith so he wouldn't sell the cure to us.]

[Stop hiding like cowards, Gonzales Holdings! Come out and explain yourselves!]

[LOL, looks like Miss Gonzales is in deep trouble this time! She's managed to piss off her own people and the rest of the world.]

[Exactly! They go silent the second things get tough. Gonzales Holdings, we demand an explanation!]

[From this day forward, I will be boycotting all Gonzales Holdings products!]

[#BoycottGonzalesHoldings!]

[Count me in!]

[...]

The online backlash was so intense that Gonzales Holdings' stock price plummeted, hitting rock bottom in a matter of hours.

Back at the Sterling estate, Justus read Smith's statement aloud, a smirk playing on his lips. "This Freya character has some nerve, showing prejudice against people from Valerium right to Professor Smith's face."

"Professor Smith has always been a generous man," he continued. "Freya must have done something truly awful to provoke such a harsh response,fle knew Smith as a compassionate doctor dedicated to humanity; he would never withhold a cure over a trivial matter

"Because of one person, countless epilepsy patients around the world are being denied medicine!"

"It's like one rotten apple spoiling the whole barrel."

Jasmine was equally incensed.

"Serves her right. If it weren't for her, we would have had a much harder time getting the medicine for Hoffman." Even a family as influential as theirs had te py

strings and pay a fortune. She couldn't imagine how impossible it would be for an ordinary person. It was all Caitlin's fault.

Suzanne's eyes narrowed. "If this continues, Gonzales Holdings might not survive." The company was a corporate giant, but Caitlin had made an enemy of every epilepsy patient in the world. Not even the Richards family could save them from this.

Justus snorted. "If Gonzales Holdings falls, Freya and Keira will have no one to blame but

themselves." Freya's foolishnessnet

was one thing, but Keira should have known better. What kind of elder stands by and watches her granddaughter wreak havoc? He didn't blame Stuart, who had only recently woken up and was likely still disoriented. But the two women were another story.

He turned to his grandmother. "Grandma, I know you have a soft spot for Keira. If the Gonzales family is on the brink of collapse and she comes to you for help, you won't be able to say no."

"Normally, I wouldn't care. But this is different. If you help them, the internet mob will trace the connection back to us. They'll think we're on their side."