SHAWN
The murmurs were a living thing now, wheezing past my ears.
The people weren't even bothering to whisper anymore; they didn't care if I heard their judgment. Seeing Killian and my Elara together, they must have written me off completely, written my entire family off as a lost cause.
That realization hurt, a sharp pain in my pride, but I had to push it aside. I needed the help of at least a third of the people in this room if the Lindays Group was to survive.
However, the necessity of business didn't stop the blooming ache in my chest as more words clashed against my ears like stones thrown at a glass house. I saw my mother wincing beside me, her body jerking more than once as if she were being physically assaulted by the sheer weight of the room’s disdain.
"Look at him, still
