Все главы Bound by Fortune :A Scandalous Heir Billionaire Romance : Глава 281 - Глава 290

The buzz in the press conference room was a tangible thing, a hive of anticipation. Cameras were pre-focused on the empty podium, emblazoned with the interlocking EKON-BRIAN logo. Reporters checked their recorders, exchanged speculative glances. The announcement was billed as a "Major Expansion of Foundation Initiatives," but the corporate press release had been sterile, giving nothing away. The air was thick with the unspoken question: what was Davidson Ekon going to do now?When this side door finally opened, the usual perfunctory wave of professional acknowledgment was replaced by a collective, sharp intake of breath, followed by a surge of frantic whispering and the explosive machine-gun staccato of camera shutters.In walked Davidson Ekon, but he was not alone. And he was not leading.He stood for a moment at the edge of the stage, his hand resting lightly on his son’s back. Michael, dressed in a suit that mirrored his father’s in its understated elegance, looked pale but resolut

The peace, it seemed, was always transient. The boardroom, once a battlefield, had become a place of orderly governance under Davidson's firm hand. But power, like nature, abhors a vacuum, and the placid surface of the last few months has lulled a few into a fatal misjudgment. They saw Davidson's public reconciliation with his son, his quiet philanthropy, his moments of solitary reflection, and they mistook it for a softening. They saw a man haunted by a ghost and mending a family, and in their calculus, such a man could not possibly retain the ruthless edge required to command an empire. They saw vulnerability, and they began to sharpen their knives.The ringleader was Phillip Croft, a long-serving director who had survived the purge by the skin of his teeth: a man of old money and older prejudices, who had always viewed Davidson's ascent as a temporary, distasteful anomaly. He had watched the "Lovers' Anniversary" pass, noted Davidson's quieter demeanor, and smelled blood in the wat

It didn't come with a crack of thunder or a dramatic, breaking news alert. It came as a whisper-a digital ghost slipping into the fortress of Davidson's reign on a perfectly ordinary Tuesday afternoon. There, on his private line, was Lev Cohen's name, a sight that usually foretold either a contained threat or a strategic victory. Davidson answered, expecting the former.“He’s dead.”Two words, flat and final. No preamble was necessary. There was only one “he” that would be announced this way.Davidson was standing beside his office bar, pouring a glass of mineral water. His hand did not shake. The bottle did not clatter on the glass. He simply completed the pour, the fizzing sound unnaturally loud in the sudden quiet."Details," he said, his voice devoid of inflection."Prison outside Buenos Aires. An 'altercation' in the yard. Shanked. They say it was over contraband cigarettes. The guards were… slow to respond." Cohen's voice was carefully neutral, a professional reporting facts, bu

The late-night quiet of the executive floor was a canvas for thought. Davidson was reviewing seismic data for a potential acquisition in the North Sea, the stark black-and-white maps a language of hidden pressures and buried fortune. Anya Sharma sat across from him, a corresponding report open on her tablet, her brow furrowed in concentration. This had become their ritual—the quiet dissection of complex problems after the rest of the empire had clocked out. It was in these hours that the real teaching happened, not through lectures, but through the silent transmission of instinct.She had prospered under his quiet tutelage; the raw, analytical brilliance was being seasoned with strategic foresight. She knew how to read the subtext in a boardroom, how to sense a rival's weakness in that slight hesitation before answering, and how to realize that the most important data could usually be found not in the report, but in the spaces between the numbers. She was, he saw with a mix of pride a

The Grand Ballroom of the Ekon-Brian Foundation shimmered, a galaxy of crystal, champagne, and unimaginable wealth. It was the most coveted invitation of the year, a testament not just to the restored power of the empire, but to its triumphant transformation. The air hummed with a new kind of energy-not the predatory buzz of Victor Brandt's era, but a vibrant, almost reverent awe. And at the center of this new universe stood Davidson Ekon.He moved through the crowd with an easy grace that had been hard-won. The sleek, midnight-blue tuxedo was a far cry from the stiff, corporate armor he'd once worn. His smile was real; his handshakes firm; his eyes clear and direct. No longer the Scandalous Heir, the usurper, the consort. He was the architect. The foundation's ambitious projects - green energy initiatives, urban educational grants - were discussed with more fervor than quarterly oil reports. He had, quite literally, changed the conversation.Joe watched him from a short distance, a g