Adira's POV
I stared at my reflection in the mirror, barely recognizing the woman looking back.
The scandal hadn't just shaken my company it had stripped me bare. Every insecurity, every unanswered question about my mother's hate, every whisper Ashley planted had now become global gossip.
I should have crumbled. I almost did.
But tonight, I wasn't walking into a boardroom. I was walking into a press hall a stage where the world would expect me to defend myself.
I adjusted my blazer, breathing deeply. My armor wasn't steel. It was poise. It was silence turned into a voice.
The knock on my door startled me.
"Adira."
Jayden.
He stepped in, impossibly composed in a tailored navy suit. His presence always filled a room, not loud, not demanding but absolute. His gaze lingered on me, softer than it should have been, considering the battlefield we were about to walk into.
"You're trembling." His voice was low.
I straightened, bristling. "I'm not."
"You are."
And then, before I could argue, he reached out slow, deliberate and took my hand. His thumb brushed my knuckles, steadying me. My pulse betrayed me, hammering so loud I was sure he could hear it.
"You don't have to prove yourself to anyone," he murmured. "Not to Ashley. Not to your parents. Not even to the press. You're already more than enough."
The words hit somewhere deep, where the scars of my mother's rejection lived. My throat tightened.
I pulled my hand back too quickly, desperate to hide the heat rising in my cheeks. "Don't, don't say things like that."
He tilted his head, eyes glinting with something unreadable. "Why not? Because they're true?"
I looked away, fumbling with my notes, anything to avoid drowning in the intensity of his gaze.
"Because..." My voice faltered. "Because it makes it harder to focus."
A slow smile tugged at his lips. "Good. Maybe it's time you stopped focusing only on the fight."
Before I could respond, Kendrick barged in, breaking the spell. "We're live in five. Let's go, Williams."
The press hall was packed, cameras flashing as I stepped onto the stage. Jayden and Kendrick flanked me, one shadow calm, the other sharp.
Questions flew like bullets:
"Are you really illegitimate?"
"Did your father hide the truth to secure his empire?"
"Do you deserve the Williams fortune?"
The old me would have frozen. But I remembered Jayden's words, his hand grounding mine.
I lifted the mic. "I won't deny the truth. Yes — I wasn't born of my mother. But everything I've achieved, every brick of the empire I built, wasn't handed to me. It was earned. My legacy isn't my bloodline. It's my work. It's the thousands of jobs created. The lives changed. That is what makes me a Williams."
The room fell silent.
And then, applause.
Loud. Unstoppable.
Ashley's poison had turned into my weapon.
I walked off the stage, head high — and Jayden was there, waiting in the shadows. His gaze caught mine, pride shining in his eyes.
"You were magnificent," he said softly.
And this time, I didn't pull away when his hand brushed mine again.
Ashley's POV
She watched the broadcast from her suite, nails biting into her palm.
Adira had taken the scandal and turned it into a crown.
And worse Jayden was by her side. Always by her side.
Ashley's smile returned, slow and venomous. "Fine, sister. If I can't break your empire, I'll break your heart."