Chapter 78 The Claim

• Scarlett’s phone wouldn’t stop vibrating. Every call, every message, every notification was the same—links to Ariane’s press conference streaming live across every major network.
• By the time she and Damien reached the private viewing room on the top floor of the Blackwood building, the screen was already filled with Ariane’s face. Immaculate makeup, calculated smile, and a backdrop plastered with the company’s logo as though it already belonged to her.
• “Ladies and gentlemen,” Ariane said into the microphone, voice smooth, “I come before you today not as a claimant, but as the rightful owner of this empirean empire built, in part, with assets that were mine long before Damien Blackwood’s name was attached to them.”