Audrey shifts slightly next to me. She doesn't speak, but I can feel the shock radiating from her body. She didn't know about the dissolution. I had Grant draft it the morning after she moved into the penthouse, right before I bought Russo's silence.
David looks up from the paper. "If the contract is void... why did Simon Vance leak it?"
"Because Simon Vance is a desperate man who realized he lost the woman he loves to his older brother," I say, delivering the lie with absolute, terrifying conviction. "He found an outdated draft of a contract we initially created to protect Audrey’s assets fromhis aggressive legal maneuvers during their breakup. He leaked it because he wants to embarrass us."
The room is silent. The journalists are calculating the angles.
"You expect us to believe that you drafted a fake engagement contract just to protect her assets?" David asks skeptically.
"I expect you to print the truth." I stand up straight, looking directly at the editor-in-chief. "The contract was a shield. The engagement is real."
I turn my head and look at Audrey.
She is staring at me. The golden flecks in her eyes are wide, completely overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the manipulation I am executing in front of her.
I reach out, my hand sliding around the back of her neck. I pull her forward, my thumb resting against her jawline.
"Tell them, Audrey," I murmur, my voice dropping to a register meant only for her, though the entire room can hear it. "Tell them why you signed the contract."
She swallows hard. She looks at the journalists, then back at me.
She understands exactly what I am doing. I am giving her the narrative. I am giving her the power to kill Simon’s story with a single sentence.
"I signed it," Audrey says, her voice steady and clear, "because Simon locked me out of my own company, and I was terrified. Malcolm offered me a way to fight back."
She pauses, her fingers reaching up to grip the lapel of my suit jacket.
"But the contract was a mistake," she continues, her eyes never leaving mine. "Because you can't put a non-disclosure agreement on someone you actually love."
The silence in the conference room is deafening.
It is the perfect quote. It is romantic, defiant, and completely destroys Simon’s image as the victim.
David looks at the dissolution paper in his hand, then at the two of us standing at the head of the table. He is a journalist. He knows a better story when he sees one.
"We will run an update to the article," David says quietly. "We will include the dissolution document and Miss Jennings' statement."
"You will run it on the front page," I correct him. "And you will issue a formal apology for publishing stolen private property."
"Agreed."
I don't wait for the rest of the board to speak. I drop my hand from Audrey’s neck, take her hand, and walk out of the conference room.
We walk back to the elevator in silence. The doors close, sealing us in the steel box as we descend to the lobby.
Audrey lets out a long, shaky breath, leaning back against the wall of the elevator. She looks at me, her expression a mixture of exhaustion and disbelief.
"You voided the contract three days ago," she says softly.
"Yes."
"You didn't tell me."
"If I had told you, you would have felt obligated to leave the penthouse." I turn to face her, the adrenaline of theconfrontation slowly draining from my system. "I needed you to stay."
She looks down at her hands. The vintage diamond is still there, heavy and permanent.
"So," she murmurs, a faint, ironic smile touching her lips. "I’m not a consultant anymore."
