On his right, Aliana sat sprawled against the sofa with her head resting on the backrest, her eyes closed, while an ice pack sat dramatically on top of her head.

Meanwhile, not too far away from her, on the other end of the same sofa sat the gorgeous chairman of the Archon Group. Calmly sipping tea as though he was not the least bit concerned about whatever strange situation was unfolding beside him.

Nigel’s confused brain could only produce one thought.

’What in the world am I even looking at right now?’

He quickly snapped out of it when Gavriel suddenly fixed him with a pointed look, making Nigel instantly straighten where he stood before awkwardly clearing his throat.

"Hello, Boss. I’m here with everything you requested," Nigel finally managed to say.

That was when Aliana slowly lifted the ice pack from her head.

"Nigel, you’re finally here," she murmured tiredly. "Come, have a seat."

Giving her a small nod, Nigel greeted Gavriel with the same politeness before cautiously walking further inside, his curious gaze continuously shifting between the two of them.

"Are you feeling alright?" he finally asked as he sat down, eyeing the ice pack she had just placed on the table.

"Yes." Aliana followed his gaze before replying flatly, "Don’t worry about this. It was Winston’s suggestion to keep my head cool before it exploded from all the ridiculous nonsense being spread about me on the news."

The more she spoke, the more Nigel could visibly feel the unbridled rage simmering beneath her calm tone.

Nigel could only sigh inwardly, knowing just how severe the situation had become, so her reaction was honestly understandable.

In fact, he was more surprised that she was not already on multiple phone calls, threatening the living daylights out of everyone responsible.

"Tell me, Nigel, what have you all found out?" Aliana asked, pulling his attention back towards her.

"Well, for starters..." Nigel awkwardly scratched the side of his face. "Let’s just say it’s a very good thing you’re not at Victorian Heights right now, Boss. Reporters are practically swarming the place."

Her expression darkened instantly, a dangerous glint flashing across her eyes. "They dare to do this again."

"Yes, and my people are already digging into every news tabloid responsible for spreading this story, along with the source behind it," Nigel quickly continued.

"Don’t worry, Boss, we’ll make sure every single one of th-"

"Don’t worry about that." Aliana calmly cut him off. "It’s already been taken care of."

"Yes, I’ll find... eh?" Nigel abruptly stopped mid-sentence, completely caught off guard.

He blinked as though trying to force the pieces inside his head to fit together.

"Right..." he slowly muttered. "Mr. Vanderbilt must already be handling it."

"But wait..." His brows furrowed deeper in confusion. "He called me not too long ago, sounding completely frantic because you weren’t answering any calls."

Nigel trailed off, looking visibly confused now.

After all, if Mr. Vanderbilt had already taken care of everything, then why had the man sounded one step away from losing his sanity while questioning Nigel earlier?

Understanding his confusion, Aliana slowly shifted her gaze towards Gavriel before replying calmly,

"Well... that would be all thanks to my boy-"

The moment her eyes met Gavriel’s icy blue gaze, she abruptly bit her tongue, immediately correcting herself as heat flooded her cheeks.

"M-my... fiance."

For one brief second, Nigel gave her a completely normal nod of understanding before the meaning of her words finally slammed into his brain.

"WAIT... WHAT?!" Nigel’s horrified, high-pitched voice immediately echoed throughout the room.

Both Aliana and Gavriel instantly frowned slightly at the outburst as their gazes finally shifted away from each other and landed on Nigel’s utterly shocked expression.

"Don’t shout, Nigel," Aliana lightly reprimanded him, though the faint embarrassment still burning across her face completely ruined the seriousness of her tone.

But Nigel’s jaw remained hanging open as though it was only seconds away from completely falling off his face and crashing onto the floor.

Clearing her throat lightly, Aliana forced herself to continue,

"Gav already called Cillian to suppress the news as much as possible across the media channels and the internet, but it seems the damage has already been done." Her eyes darkened with irritation. "They’re currently trying to trace whoever leaked the information and secretly recorded everything in the first place. But the CCTV footage from the office has already been tampered with. Whoever sent those photos to the news outlets did it completely anonymously."

The atmosphere in the room instantly turned heavier.

That was when Nigel finally snapped out of his stunned daze and hurriedly found his voice again.

"Oh... but Boss," he said cautiously, "it wasn’t just photos."

This caught both Aliana and Gavriel’s attention. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"There’s also a video."

"What video?" Aliana frowned deeply, while beside her, Gavriel’s icy blue eyes sharpened with a dangerous edge that made Nigel instinctively sit straighter.

Without daring to waste another second under that terrifying gaze, Nigel hurriedly tapped across his iPad before carefully placing it onto the coffee table in front of the now visibly tense couple.

Then, after swallowing nervously, he pressed play.

The video began with Aliana crashing straight into Jacob’s arms while he looked down at her, his hands wrapped firmly around her waist for several seconds as Aliana clutched tightly onto his arms.

Then the footage shifted to the two of them walking into her office together after leaving Nigel outside to wait.

The timestamp on the screen quickly showed twenty minutes passing.

After that, Jacob finally stepped out of the office, casually adjusting his attire and fixing his hair, despite the fact that it already looked perfectly fine to begin with. He briefly glanced left and right before calmly walking away.

A second later, the footage cut to Aliana stepping out of the office as well, now dressed in a burgundy outfit instead of the olive-green one she had been wearing earlier, before leaving together with Nigel.

And then the video abruptly ended.

A heavy, suffocating silence instantly settled over the room, so thick it almost felt as though the oxygen itself was being choked out of the space.

When neither of them spoke, Nigel carefully cleared his throat before finally speaking in a cautious voice.

"The video has been edited in a way that makes everything look... very wrong."

He hesitated briefly before continuing, "Since all the CCTV footage from the office has already been tampered with, there’s currently no way to prove that you only stumbled and were caught by Mr. Grant in the hallway..."

His expression turned increasingly tight. "And later, when you stepped out of the office wearing a different outfit, it was only because coffee had accidentally spilled all over you."

"Those bastards!" Aliana hissed, her fingers curling into a tight fist so hard that her nails dug painfully into her own skin as her uncontrollable rage began spilling out of her.

Meanwhile, beside her, Gavriel was struggling to restrain the darkness within himself that was practically demanding blood. His grip tightened so hard around the delicate teacup in his hand that it nearly shattered under the pressure.

Suddenly, for what felt like the hundredth time tonight, Aliana’s phone began vibrating again.

The phone lay on the sofa between Gavriel and Aliana, and both of their eyes instantly snapped towards the glowing screen.

Jacob Grant.

Before Aliana could even reach out to answer the call, Gavriel beat her to it.

Without saying a single word, he picked up the phone, slid his finger across the screen, and calmly placed the call against his ear, surprising both Aliana and Nigel.

Then, within the heavy silence of the room, Jacob’s panicked voice rang clearly from the other side.

"Aliana? Thank God you finally picked up the phone! I was so worried about you."

After a brief pause, his voice lowered cautiously.

"Did you... see the news?"