Chapter 16 - Standing Firm
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The fallout was immediate and brutal.
By Monday morning, Pedro's phone was ringing incessantly. The board of directors demanded an emergency meeting. PR consultants drafted press releases distancing the company from the "troubled employee."
Pedro ignored them all.
Instead, he did the unthinkable. He called a press conference in the grand foyer of Breakers Mansion.
Abigail watched from the top of the stairs, hidden in the shadows, as Pedro stood before a sea of reporters and flashing cameras. He looked calm, composed, and absolutely terrifying.
"Yesterday, my family was ambushed in a public park," Pedro began, his voice echoing off the marble walls. "The woman you are attempting to vilify in your papers, Miss Abigail Hill, acted exactly as any protective mother would when her children are threatened by a mob."
The reporters murmured heavily at his use of the word mother.
"You have dug into her past, trying to paint her as a criminal," Pedro continued, his eyes narrowing. "Let me be clear. Miss Hill survived a childhood that would have broken most of the people in this room. She used that strength to bring light back into my home when it was completely dark. She is the finest person I know."
A reporter shouted from the back, "Mr. Jacobs! Are you saying you intend to keep a woman with an assault record around your vulnerable children?"
Pedro leaned into the microphone.
"I am saying," Pedro stated, his voice a low, lethal rumble, "that if any one of you ever stalks my family again, or prints another defamatory lie about the woman I love, my legal team will ensure you never work in this city again. This press conference is over."
Upstairs, Abigail stopped breathing.
May you like
The woman I love.
He had said it to the world. He had bet his entire empire, his reputation, and his public image on her. She backed away from the railing, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs, completely terrified by the magnitude of his confession.
