Jonathan stood at the end of the dark wooden table, facing a line of directors, lawyers, and his public relations team. They all looked exhausted—their eyes weary and hands typing rapidly on laptops or sifting through documents.
The conference room had become a war room, papers scattered across every surface, coffee cups abandoned and growing cold, and the tension so thick it seemed to press against the walls.
The morning had started with one crisis, but by afternoon, it had multiplied into a full-scale assault on everything Evans Group had built. Phone calls from concerned clients, emails from nervous partners, and an endless stream of media inquiries had turned what should have been a routine business day into a nightmare of damage control.
Marcus Chen, the head of legal, looked up f
