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Chapter 46: The Board and the Knife

last update Last Updated: 2026-01-07 06:52:53

(Elara's POV)

The lights were a physical assault. They burned away the shadows of the ICU waiting room, the private grief, and left everything raw and exposed. A small podium had been set up at the end of the corridor, a wall of microphones sprouting from it like metallic fungi. Beyond the cordon of hospital security and Charles’s own men, a pack of journalists shifted, their cameras raised like weapons.

I stood just out of sight, my hands ice-cold. A makeup artist, summoned by Charles, had dabbed away the worst of my pallor, but nothing could fill the hollows under my eyes. The suit they’d brought was too perfect, a armor of navy wool.

Charles was a statue beside me. “Remember,” he said, his voice for my ears only. “Grief. Loyalty. Defiance. In that order. Then the warning. Look at the lens, not the people.”

I didn’t nod. I was afraid if I moved, I would shatter.

A press aide murmured something, and Charles gave a single, sharp nod. He stepped into the light first, a wave of question
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