Chapter 5 - The Confrontation at the Boardroom
Back in Boston,
the storm had reached the corporate headquarters.
Gideon walked into the executive boardroom,
the atmosphere instantly turning to ice.
The board members,
men who had known his father,
looked at him with stern,
unforgiving eyes.
"Sit down,
Gideon,"
the chairman said,
his voice cutting through the silence.
Gideon remained standing,
his hands resting on the back of a leather chair.
"I don't have time for a lecture,"
he snapped,
his voice raw from lack of sleep.
"You will make time,"
the chairman replied,
slamming a printed copy of the social media post onto the table.
"Our stock plummeted twelve percent this morning.
Two major investors have already pulled out of the London merger.
This isn't a private matter anymore,
it's a fiduciary crisis."
Gideon looked at the paper,
the image of Clara looking back at him with cool defiance.
"It's a temporary PR issue,
I will handle it,"
he said coldly.
"How?"
another board member demanded.
"By chasing your wife across the ocean while your mistress cradles your illegitimate child?
The public hates you,
Gideon.
You look like a monster."
The word hung in the air,
heavy and suffocating.
Gideon's jaw clenched,
the muscles tightening until it ached.
He had always been the golden boy,
the untouchable genius who could do no wrong.
Now,
he was being judged by the very men he used to command.
"Clara will drop the suit,"
Gideon said,
his voice filled with a desperate certainty.
"She has nowhere else to go.
She has no money of her own."
"You haven't been paying attention,
have you?"
the chairman sighed,
shaking his head.
"Her family's old estate in England is worth millions,
and her attorney is Marcus Vance.
She isn't looking for a settlement,
Gideon.
She's looking for blood."
Gideon felt a cold dread settle in his stomach.
Marcus Vance was the most ruthless divorce lawyer in Europe,
and a man who hated the Knightleys with a passion.
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This wasn't a minor rebellion.
It was a war.
