“Don’t say anything,” Tashi said.
Orion stepped onto the stage with us.
“Should we evacuate?” Tashi asked. “People are leaving through the doors.”
“It’s safer if we keep the guests calm and contained,” Orion said. “The moment we pull the fire alarm, it’s chaos. Stampedes. Panic. People get hurt. We control this by controlling them.”
She took a breath, her hands steadying on the microphone. “I think we trust Ares.”
“Then we make our announcement,” Orion said. “Let’s finish this.”
“We were supposed to do this with Ares,” protested Tashi.
“We should do this now and get everyone’s attention,” I said.
Tashi blew out a breath and squeezed my hand once, then stepped back to the microphone. “Thank you all for being here tonight,” she said, her voice clear and steady despite everything. “I want to tell you all a story.”
My phone buzzed again.
I glanced down.
Ares:Marcus just arrived.
My heart stopped.
“Tashi—” I started.
She saw my face and understood immediately. “Is he?—?”
“With Marcus. Right now.”
Orion’s jaw clenched, but he kept his voice steady. “We finish this. We trust Ares knows what he’s doing.”
The ballroom felt too bright, too loud, and too exposed. Every instinct screamed to run upstairs, to help my brother, todo something other than stand here pretending everything was fine.
But Tashi squeezed my hand, grounding me. “The four of us have chosen each other,” she continued into the microphone, her voice unwavering. “Not because it’s easy. Not because it’s conventional. But because what we have together is stronger, deeper, and more honest than anything we could have separately.”
Orion stepped forward. “My brothers and I grew up together. Built this hotel together. Survived our parents’ death together. We’ve always been a unit—three against the world. And when Tashi walked into our lives, we didn’t see that as something to divide us. We saw it as something that made us stronger.”
He looked at me, offering the microphone.
I took it, forcing myself to focus on the crowd, on this moment, on what we were building here instead of what might be happening on that roof.
“I’ve spent my life creating things,” I said. “Designing experiences, building brands, telling stories. But I’ve never created anything as beautiful as what the four of us have together. It’s messy. It’s complicated. It defies every social convention I was raised to respect.”
I looked at Tashi, at her gold dress catching the light, at her courage holding us all together.
“But it’s ours,” I continued. “And it’s real. And anyone who can’t accept that—well, that’s their loss, not ours.”
Applause erupted. Not universal—I could see disapproving faces, people already typing negative comments—but enough. Enough to tell us we weren’t alone.
My phone buzzed.
Ares:Situation resolved. Coming down.
Relief flooded through me so suddenly that I almost staggered.
“He’s okay,” I whispered to Orion. “Ares is okay.”
