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Chapter 10 — Damage Control

Author: Azora
last update publish date: 2026-08-19 05:07:23

POV: BEATRIX

Two mornings after Ivy's nightmare, I found myself sitting at the far end of a conference table I had no official reason to occupy. Watching six people in very expensive suits try and fail to solve a problem I could have fixed in the first five minutes if anyone had thought to ask me.

Nikolai had only texted that I should be there, with no explanation beyond that. <

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  • Accidentally Dating Hockey’s Ice King    Chapter 34 — The Board Reacts

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    POV: BEATRIXMy phone was already buzzing when I woke up, and this time I knew better than to hope it meant something good.It was a few minutes past six. The bed beside me was empty, the sheets still faintly warm, and somewhere down the hall I could hear the low, clipped rhythm of Nikolai's voice behind his office door.It was the tone he used only when something at work had gone wrong. I lay there for a moment telling myself it was a sponsor. A schedule. Anything.Thirty-seven messages. Maya, three times in a row. A number I did not recognize. Priya's name, twice, both marked urgent.And a link, sent by four different people, with no words attached at all.I opened it.The headline stretched across the top of the page in heavy black letters. SYMPATHY FIRST, FACTS SECOND: THE BILLIONAIRE'S BRIDE WHO BUILT FALSE STORIES FOR A LIVING.Beneath it was a photograph of me in the flour-dusted apron, laughing, cropped from the cook-off clip, with a thin red circle drawn around my face like a

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