The cameras were brutal.
The microphones harsher.
But Liam Hawthorne walked into the press hall with Ava Langston at his side — not behind him.
He took the podium. She stood with him.
No bodyguards. No lawyers. Just them.
“I want to address two things,” Liam began. “The boy in that photo… is my son. He was kept from me. And now that I know of him, I will protect him. With everything I have.”
Reporters shouted over each other. “What about Ava Langston? Did she know?” “Was there a cover-up?”
Liam raised a hand.
“Ava Langston is not only my partner in business and in life. She’s the reason I became the man worthy of that child. She didn’t hide him. I did. Out of fear, not malice.”
Then Ava stepped forward.
And her words silenced the room.
“I’ve been called manipulative, cold, contr
