Lahat ng Kabanata ng Bound by Fortune :A Scandalous Heir Billionaire Romance : Kabanata 231 - Kabanata 240

The atrium of the Brian Energy tower was a steel and glass cathedral, constructed to awe and overawe. Today, it was packed, a wave of anxious faces from the marble floor to the high balconies. Thousands of employees had arrived, summoned by an all-employee email from the CEO. The rumors were a contagion: the freeze on assets, the frenzy in the press, the specter of Victor Brandt. They had not come to receive a corporate pep rally, but to receive a judgment. They needed to know if the man in charge was still captain, or if he was taking them onto the shoals.Davidson stood in an empty alcove, watching them. He saw the fear, the doubt, the sidelong glances. These were the people whose profits rested on the solidity he was supposed to represent. He had come ready with notes, with bullet points on liquidity and market confidence, but when he looked out at them, the paper felt like ash in his hands. This was not an economic address. This was a reckoning.He stepped alone onto the stage. No

The plaza itself was charged with life. It was not the sterile, air-conditioned fervor of the corporate atrium, but something more elemental, more intense. Thousands had gathered, not just Brian Energy employees, but supporters, curious onlookers, and the media, drawn to the magnetic, shocking rise of the "People's Heir." They spilled down the stone stairs, a wave of hopeful, wondering faces.Davidson stood in a simple podium, the city skyline attesting to the empire they were defying. Joe watched from a safe, bulletproof suite in a plaza-front building, too ill to be out there in the crowd, but present. It was their initial public outing, a display of collective defiance. Davidson's deep, powerful voice told a story of survival and tomorrow, of a dynasty built not on sheer history, but on the stubborn need to persevere.He was halfway through a sentence, his arm gesturing toward the future, when the world blew.It wasn't a tremendous sound at first. A sharp crack, as rock crashed int

The decision was not made in the war room, but in the quiet of the sickroom. The attempted assassination had taken away the last illusion of time. Joe was weakening once more, the initial improvement after his resuscitation giving way to a more unrelenting, a more solid fatigue. The court-mandated psychological testing loomed over them, a charade that would rip his mind asunder under the eyes of strangers. They would not have that victory.He summoned Davidson, Clara, and a silent, notarized video technician to the penthouse. The medical equipment was pushed against walls, the lights turned up to a warm, soft gold that muted the whiteness of Joe's skin but could not mask the thread-bony framework of his bones. He rested half-sitting in bed, in a simple, black silk shirt—a king's shroud, or a king's armor. Davidson knelt beside him, his own bandaged arm a reflection of their shared, defiled state."The court wishes to test my mind," Joe said, his voice thin and reedy but vibrating with

The city wept in a fine, grey mist, as if the sky itself mourned. The magnificent cathedral, a stone and glass monument, was an oasis of silent solemnity in the midst of the raucous metropolis. Inside, the air was thick with the scent of lilies and old money. The influential and wealthy of a dozen diverse industries packed the pews, their heads lowered not so much in grief, but in strategy. A king's funeral was always a matter of politics.Davidson stood at the forefront, a lone figure wearing immaculate black. He did not falter. He did not weep. He was a pillar of stone in a sea of swaying, lucent mourning. His pale, set face was a mask. Behind it, his mind was a raw, exposed wound. Each whisper of the sobbing organ, every softened prayer, was a fresh scalpel to the memory of Joe's last, silent breath. The weight of the ring on his finger—Joe's heavy signet ring, cold to the touch—was the only thing in this world that was solid.He had chosen the readings, the music, the pallbearers.

The cathedral was a sanctuary of hushed, curated grief. Stained-glass saints looked down upon a congregation of sinners and kings, all united in a performance of mourning for a man who had commanded their fear, their respect, or their wallets. Davidson Ekon stood near the front, a pillar of somber authority in his tailored black suit. He had spent the last hour receiving a slow, solemn procession of condolences—a handshake here, a murmured “He was a great man” there. Each interaction was a piece of theater, a public demonstration of his position as the chief mourner and, by extension, the legitimate successor.He had choreographed this memorial service with deliberate consideration, a deliberate sequel to the raw private interment of the day before. This was for the world. This was to project stability. The guest list had been his first act of reclamation, a clear message about the new lines of allegiance. Victor Brandt's name had been conspicuous by its absence.Which was why the sud