Chapter 12 - The Media Circus
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Despite Lucian’s brilliant legal maneuvering, some enemies still had sharp teeth left, and they were hungry for a spectacle.
The media absolutely loved the story, but for all the wrong, sensationalist reasons. The headlines were relentless and inescapable. Billionaire Murdered by Socialite Mother. Pregnant Widow Inherits Tech Empire. Funeral Video Shocks Manhattan Elite. Was It Real? Was It Deepfake? And worst of all: Who Is Isabel Ashcroft, Really?
Old, pixelated photographs of me teaching middle school English were splashed across tabloids, placed side-by-side with glamorous, red-carpet images from Helixion charity galas. Talking heads and financial commentators debated endlessly on morning shows about whether I was 'intellectually qualified' to control majority voting shares in a company whose technology shaped global medical diagnostics, logistics systems, and satellite communications.
No one on television seemed to ask whether Victoria had been qualified to murder her own son. The narrative was entirely focused on my perceived incompetence.
At eight months pregnant, I became a massive public question mark.
Men in expensive suits suddenly appeared on financial news networks, mansplaining corporate governance risks to the public. Anonymous, cowardly sources claimed Lucian had been “emotionally vulnerable” and acting under my manipulative influence in his final weeks. A prominent tech columnist maliciously dubbed me “the weeping widow with the keys to the kingdom.” One of Victoria’s wealthy socialite friends even gave an exclusive interview, stating that pregnancy hormones and grief could make women overly vindictive and prone to hallucinations.
I sat in the living room and watched ten minutes of that specific interview before Marcus walked in and calmly took the remote from my hand, shutting off the television.
“You are not required to consume poison simply because it is being televised, Isabel,” he said.
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“I should know what they are saying about me. I need to know what I’m up against.”
“You should know what matters,” Marcus corrected. “And the opinions of cable news pundits do not matter. The board meeting tomorrow matters.”
