The word war did not leave the room, but it settled into everything, heavy and unspoken, pressing against every decision that followed.
No one spoke for a few seconds after Sebastian ended the call.
Then everything moved at once.
"Get legal on this immediately," Mr. Ravenscroft said, his voice sharp, controlled, already shifting into action. "I want every document, every filing, every angle covered before this reaches court. I don't want surprises."
Alaric was already dialing. "I'm calling our legal team now. If Vale wants to fight, we don't meet him halfway—we crush him before he even understands what he started."
Elara paced once, restless, her mind racing faster than her steps. "This is escalating too fast. The media, the DNA, the picture… this is not random. Someone is feeding this deliberately, layer by layer."
No one answered that.
Because right now, it didn't matter who.
What mattered—
Was the damage already done.
