ALEX POV
I have read hostile press my entire life, False financial reports, manipulated market rumours, calculated attempts to shake investor confidence, none of them prepared me for this. The headline glares back at me from the screen like a personal accusation, bold and obscene in its confidence, as if it knows it will not be challenged easily.
Not because it is true. But because it is convenient. I had just gotten off the phone with Lavender. I can still hear the tremor in her voice, the way she apologized for something she did not do, for a war she never started. That apology burns hotter than rage in my chest. I pace the length of my study, phone clenched in my fist, jaw locked so tight it aches.
Secretary, seduced, allegedly. They stripped her down to a role small enough to be dis
