Chapter 437

• Just as I predicted, the rumors about Vivian vanished almost overnight.
• The gossip channels the blogs, the whispered conversations at rooftop brunches, even the cynical murmurs in power-lunch cafés shifted their tone almost too conveniently. Suddenly, the narrative was sanitized: both Starhaven and Sandoria had made high-stakes acquisitions on the Southern Frontier, but ultimately came to a clean, mutual divestiture. No unethical practices. No scandal. No victims.
• It was textbook damage control precise, surgical. The kind of strategic PR wipeout that doesn’t happen unless someone very powerful makes a few quiet phone calls.