Lahat ng Kabanata ng Once Bitten, Twice Shy: Kabanata 31 - Kabanata 40

The boardroom smelled like coffee and cologne and something under both of those, something sharp and electric that I could only call fear, though I couldn't have said at first whose fear it was.Mine, maybe. I hadn't slept.Milo walked on my left, a leather case in his hand heavy enough to strain his shoulder. Nathaniel walked on my right, close but not touching, his eyes already moving across the room, counting faces, counting cameras, counting exits the way he'd taught himself to do in the five years since he'd learned what happened to people who didn't.The room was full. Shareholders filled every chair around the long table, and behind them, packed along the walls, stood lawyers, executives, and at least a dozen reporters with notebooks and recorders already out, their eyes tracking me the moment I walked through the door.Gideon stood at the head of the table.He looked magnificent. Pressed suit, easy smile, the posture of a man who had already rehearsed his victory in a mirror t

"These recordings were obtained against the law," Gideon said, before I'd even reached the door. "Anything captured without consent is inadmissible, and I'd ask the board to disregard whatever theater my wife is about to stage.""They were recorded by a party present in every conversation," Milo said, not looking up from his laptop. "That satisfies single party consent under state law. I'd be happy to walk the board through the statute, if Mr. Shaw would prefer a legal debate over listening to his own voice."Gideon opened his mouth to argue further, and that was when the door at the back of the room opened.Naomi walked in.She wore a plain gray coat, her hair pulled back, no makeup, nothing polished about her at all, and yet she carried herself with a steadiness I hadn't seen in her since the night she first handed me a flash drive on my porch. Every head in the room turned. A few of the reporters along the wall straightened, recognizing her face from company events, whispering her

"He knew about Harold," Gideon said, pressing the advantage before I could gather myself. "Your father found out about my connection to him in his final weeks. He confronted me about it. And he still trusted me enough to keep me close, to keep me in your life. If I were the villain you're all so eager to paint tonight, why would a man who'd uncovered the truth still choose to leave me standing beside his daughter?"The question landed the way he meant it to, a seed of doubt dropped into a room that had been turning against him for the better part of an hour.A few faces around the table shifted, uncertain again."Is that true, Elise?" a shareholder near the front asked, her tone gentle rather than accusing. "Did your father know about this connection before he died?"I opened my mouth to answer, but Milo spoke first, his hand resting flat on a folder he hadn't yet opened."That's not what the record shows," Milo said.He said it without drama, the way a man says something he's certain

"What does that mean?" I asked, my voice low enough to match his. "What original evidence?"Gideon didn't answer. He only straightened, the smile still fixed in place, and let the question hang in the air between us like something he intended to savor."Elise." Milo's voice cut through from across the table, pulling my attention away before I could press further. "We need to talk. Now."I stepped back from Gideon, my pulse still hammering from whatever he'd planted in my head, and followed Milo to the far corner of the room where Nathaniel was already waiting, his face drawn tight with concern."What did he say to you?" Nathaniel asked."That I still don't know what happened to my father's original evidence." I kept my voice low, mindful of the reporters still scattered along the walls, their recorders still running, their attention still fixed on every movement in the room. "What does that mean, Milo? We have the archive. We have the sealed files."Milo's jaw tightened, and something

"Don't open that," Milo said.My thumb was already under the flap of the envelope. "Why not?""Because the investigator wants everything we touch in this room, and I'm still filming." He held the phone steady. "If you read it first, a defense lawyer will say you changed it. Let me call him. Let him open it here.""My father wrote my husband's name on it, and the word *marries*. I'm not letting a stranger read that before I do.""Elise.""I told the investigator I open it first. He agreed.""He agreed because he thought you'd wait for us to document it.""Then document it." I looked into the lens. "I'm opening an envelope my father sealed. Please write that down."Milo looked at Nathaniel. "Tell her.""I think she's right," Nathaniel said. "And I think you know it."Milo breathed out through his nose. "I know it. I hate it." He lifted the phone higher. "Say everything out loud. Every page."His phone buzzed. He glanced at it. "The chairman's secretary. The recess ends at twelve forty."