Chapter 23: The Public Front
474 Words
The conference room was packed with journalists, the air thick with the smell of expensive cologne and the electric hum of cameras being readied. Elara stood in the wings, her hands clasped tightly in front of her. She had traded her blue silk for a charcoal power suit—her uniform for war.
"You don't have to do this," Killian said, appearing at her side. He looked immaculate, his face a mask of cool, billionaire indifference, but his eyes were soft as they landed on her. "I can handle the press. I can tell them you’re a consultant and leave it at that."
"No," Elara said, looking up at him. "If we hide, we look guilty. If we’re going to do this, we do it together. Like partners."
Killian smiled, a quick, sharp thing that didn't reach the cameras outside. He took her hand for a fleeting second, his thumb grazing her knuckles, before stepping out onto the podium.
The flashes were blinding. Questions were shouted before he even reached the microphone.
"Mr. Blackwood! Is it true the CFO was arrested because of a personal vendetta?"
"Who is the woman in the photos, Killian?"
"Is Blackwood Industries insolvent?"
Killian raised a hand, and the room went dead silent. The "Blackwood Authority" was a tangible thing, a gravity that pulled everyone in the room toward him.
"Last night, an internal audit conducted by Miss Elara Vance uncovered a decade of systemic fraud orchestrated by Marcus Thorne in collaboration with the Vane Group," Killian said, his voice amplified and steady. "This wasn't a vendetta. It was a cleansing. And as for Miss Vance..."
He reached back, gesturing for Elara to join him. She stepped into the light, her heart drumming a frantic rhythm.
"Elara Vance is not just an auditor," Killian said, his hand finding the small of her back as she stood beside him. "She is the new Executive Vice President of Risk Management. And she is the woman who will be helping me lead this company into its next era. Any suggestion that her presence here is anything less than professional—or that our relationship is anything but a united front—will be met with the full force of our legal department."
The room exploded. Elara stood tall, her eyes fixed on a camera in the back. She wasn't the "girl who burned his world down" anymore. She was the one who was going to help him build a better one. But as they walked off the stage, Elara saw a familiar figure standing near the exit—Julian Vane.
He wasn't shouting questions. He was just watching her. And in his hand, he held a single, red envelope. The war wasn't over; it had just moved to a new stage.
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