Chapter 148
Marcus’s POV
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Marcus’s phone rang for the forty-seventh time in the last hour. He’d stopped answering after the first dozen calls, all of them variations of the same questions. Have you seen the video? Is it real? What’s the board going to do?
He sat at his desk in the home office while notifications continued flooding in. Every major business publication had the story. Bloomberg, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times. They’d all led with some version of the same headline and a blurred screenshot from the video that left nothing to the imagination.
The tabloids were even worse. They’d gone with salacious angles, speculating about the nature of his relationship with Elara, questioning the timeline of their marriage, digging into Elara’s background with barely concealed glee at finding a rags-to-riches scandal.
Dante arrived at eight AM looking like he hadn’t slept. He walked straight to the bar and poured himself a drink despite the early hour.
“I’ve been fielding calls since six,” Dante said. “Every board member has reached out. Morrison, Rodriguez, Chen, all of them. They’re furious.”
“I’m sure they are.”
“The PR team wants to meet within the hour. They’re drafting statements, preparing responses, trying to get ahead of this before it spirals further.”
“It’s already spiraled. There’s no getting ahead of it.”
Marcus pulled up another news site on his computer. This one had hired a lip reader to analyze what he and Elara were saying in the video. The analysis was surprisingly accurate, including the moment Marcus had said “I need you” and Elara had responded with something that was definitely not appropriate for publication.
Dante looked over his shoulder at the screen. “Christ. They got a lip reader?”
“Apparently there’s no low they won’t sink to for clicks.”
“Have you looked at social media? It’s trending everywhere. People are making memes out of the screenshots.”
Marcus hadn’t looked and didn’t plan to. The business publications were bad enough. He didn’t need to see what Twitter was saying about the video of him fucking his assistant in a fire exit.
“Where’s Elara?” Dante asked.
“Still in bed. I told her to stay there, to not look at any of this. The stress isn’t good for the babies.”
“Is she listening?”
“Probably not.”
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Marcus’s office door opened and Elara walked in wearing one of his shirts and looking exhausted. “I can hear you talking about me. And no, I’m not staying in bed while our lives fall apart.”
She crossed to Marcus’s desk and looked at the computer screen, her face paling when she saw the lip reader analysis.
“They did what now?”
“Hired a professional lip reader to figure out what we were saying.” Marcus closed the laptop. “You don’t need to see this.”
“Yes, I do. This is happening to both of us, not just you.”
Dante’s phone rang and he stepped out of the office to take it, leaving Marcus and Elara alone.
“The PR team is coming over,” Marcus said. “They want to draft a statement, figure out how to respond.”
“What are we going to say?”
“I don’t know yet. Acknowledge the video is real? Deny that it has any bearing on our marriage? Apologize for inappropriate workplace conduct?” And say we had a relationship prior.
“We weren’t at work. We were at a company party.”
“Same difference to the board. I was the CEO, you were my employee. The power dynamic makes it look predatory regardless of the actual circumstances.”
Elara sat on the edge of his desk. “I want to release a statement. From me. Explaining that it was consensual, that you didn’t pressure me, that we were both adults who made a choice, and we were seeing each other then.”
“That’ll make you look like you’re covering for me.”
“I don’t care how it looks. I’m not letting them paint you as some kind of predator who took advantage of his
assistant.”
Marcus stood and pulled her into his arms. “This is exactly what Penelope wanted. For us to be scrambling, defensive, divided on how to respond.”
“Then we don’t scramble. We tell the truth.”
“The truth is we had sex in a fire exit and three weeks later I paid you two million dollars to marry me. That’s not a truth that’s going to play well.”
“So we don’t mention the contract. We just acknowledge the video, say we were in a relationship that we kept private, and that we got married when we were ready.”
“They’ll ask about the timeline. About when you got pregnant versus when we married.”
“Let them ask. We don’t owe them an explanation about our personal lives.”
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Chapter 148
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Dante came back in looking grim. “That was Lisa Chen. She’s calling for your immediate resignation pending investigation.”
“Investigation into what?”
“Workplace misconduct, abuse of power, violation of company ethics policies. Take your pick.”
Marcus laughed bitterly. “There’s no ethics policy against consensual relationships. I checked before.”
“You checked before you hired your assistant whether you could sleep with her?” Elara asked.
“I checked because I was already attracted to you and wanted to know if I was violating any policies by doing you anyway.”
Dante cleared his throat. “The PR team will be here in twenty minutes. We need to decide on a strategy before then.”
“The strategy is honesty,” Marcus said. “We acknowledge the video is real. We confirm that Elara and I were in a relationship prior to our marriage. We decline to comment further on our personal lives.”
“That’s not going to satisfy the board.”
“I don’t care about satisfying the board. I care about not lying and not throwing Elara under the bus to save my own reputation.”
“Your reputation is already destroyed. The question is whether we can salvage the company.”
“Then salvage it. Do whatever you need to do. But I’m not apologizing for falling in love with my wife.”
Elara squeezed his hand. “We should mention the babies. It’ll help, showing that we’re a real family.”
“No.” Marcus’s voice was firm. “We’re not using our children as props to make this look better. Their medical situation is private and it stays that way.”
The doorbell rang. Dante went to answer it, returning moments later with three people from the PR firm Marcus had on retainer. They set up in the dining room with laptops and phones, immediately launching into crisis management mode.
For the next two hours, they debated every word of the statement. Whether to apologize, whether to acknowledge wrongdoing, whether to address the pregnancy timeline. The PR team wanted contrition and distance. Marcus wanted honesty. Elara wanted defiance.
They were still arguing when Marcus’s phone rang with a call from Robert Morrison. Marcus stepped away from the table to answer.
“Robert.”
“Marcus, I’m calling as a courtesy to let you know I’ve scheduled an emergency board meeting for tomorrow at 10 AM.” Morrison’s voice was grave, disappointed in a way that cut deeper than anger would have. “You’ll have the opportunity to address the board about this situation before we vote.”
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Chapter 148
Vote on what?”
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“On whether to remove you as CEO effective immediately. On whether to launch a formal investigation into potential ethics violations. On whether your marriage satisfies the requirements of your grandfather’s will.”
“I see.”
“I’ve known you since you were a child, Marcus. Your grandfather was one of my closest friends. I never thought I’d have to make a call like this.”
“Then don’t. You don’t have to vote against me just because Penelope leaked a video.”
“This isn’t about the video. This is about judgment, about integrity, about whether you’ve honored the spirit of your grandfather’s wishes. And frankly, son, I’m not sure you have.”
Marcus closed his eyes. “The emergency meeting. Tomorrow at 10 AM. I’ll be there.”
“Be prepared to explain yourself. To really explain yourself. Because right now, I don’t know if there’s anything you can say that will save your position.”
The line went quiet after.
Marcus stood there holding his silent phone, staring out the window at the city below. Penelope was probably celebrating. Watching the news coverage, reading the social media commentary, basking in the chaos she’d
created.
Dante appeared at his side. “Morrison?”
“Emergency board meeting tomorrow. I’m going to be given the opportunity to explain myself before they vote on whether to remove me as CEO.”
“And if the vote doesn’t go your way?”
Marcus turned to face his best friend. “Then I guess we will find out what comes after.”
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