Lydia POV
The headline finds me before breakfast.
It’s on my phone when I wake up, blinking across the screen like an accusation.
IS ADRIAN COLE THE ILLEGITIMATE SON WHO STOLE HALE’S EMPIRE?
For a moment I just stare at it.
Not because I believe it.
Because I know exactly what it is.
War.
Carefully written. Carefully timed. Designed to travel through the world like poison dressed as curiosity.
I open the article.
The language is clever. Not a direct accusation. Just enough “sources” and “questions” to make readers fill in the rest themselves.
Old photos.
Speculation about Adrian’s mother.
Hints that his place in the corporate world was built on deception.
It’s the kind of story people love repeating because it sounds scandalous enough to feel true.
I scroll to the bottom slo
