The article broke at 6:12 p.m.
I was still in the office when my phone buzzed with the alert. At first, I ignored it. Notifications had become background noise over the past week — speculation, commentary, analysts dissecting board meetings as if they were sporting events.
But this one was different.
"Inside Thorne Industries: Is the CEO's Loyalty Strategic — or Personal?"
I opened it slowly.
The piece was polished, well-researched, and dangerously subtle. It didn't accuse. It suggested. It outlined my rapid rise, my public positioning at the gala, the contract rumors, the board's tension. It described Julian's defense of me during the vote of confidence. It noted how rarely he had ever publicly aligned himself with any executive so visibly.
And then it ended with one sentence that l
