Chapter 465
Chapter 465:
Dallas slowly stood, retrieving his cane from the floor. He offered her his free arm, and together they walked out of the golden-lit office, leaving Vinnie at the desk to file the documents that officially bound their lives and empires together.
They took the private executive elevator down to the underground parking garage, where Simmons was already standing at attention beside the open door of the armored Maybach.
The moment Eliza slid into the plush leather backseat, her phone began to vibrate violently.
It was Azalea.
“Azalea, what’s wrong p>
“Eliza! You need to turn on the news right now!” Azalea’s voice was shrill with panic. “Some crazy woman is leaking Dallas’s medical files on a livestream p>
Eliza’s heart plummeted into her stomach.
She grabbed the iPad mounted on the back of the seat and tapped the screen.
Updates every week on.com
A live video feed filled the display. A blonde socialite named Yolanda Frost was sitting in a lavish hotel suite, holding a microphone.
“I’m not naming names,” Yolanda purred at the camera, a wicked glint in her eyes. “But let’s just say a certain billionaire CEO in this city is hiding a massive physical defect. He’s practically a eunuch p>
The live chat scrolling beside the video was moving at lightning speed, every single comment guessing the same name: Dallas Koch.
Eliza’s fingers curled into tight fists, her nails biting into her palms.
Dallas, sitting right beside her, stared at the screen. All the warmth that had filled his eyes back in the office vanished in an instant. The blood drained from his face, leaving him deathly pale. His jaw locked with a sickening pop.
“Turn it off,” Dallas rasped, his voice vibrating with sudden, suffocating shame. He looked away, staring blindly out the tinted window.
Eliza didn’t just turn it off. She slammed her hand against the power button and killed the screen instantly.
“Eliza, the stock…” Azalea stammered through the phone, her voice shaking. “The S&D Group shares are already dipping in after-hours trading. The board is going to lose their minds. What do we do p>
“We do not panic,” Eliza said, her tone absolute steel. “This is a coordinated attack. I’ll handle it. See you at dinner p>
She hung up.
She looked at Dallas. The massive, terrifying CEO looked like he had just been gutted. The rumor had targeted the deepest, most agonizing insecurity he harbored about his scarred, broken body.
“Simmons,” Eliza ordered, her voice cutting through the heavy silence in the car, “tell the driver to step on it. We are going straight to the Manor p>
The atmosphere inside Koch Manor was explosive.
When Eliza and Dallas stepped through the front doors, the grand foyer felt like a military war room. Telephones rang relentlessly from the ground-floor offices as PR teams scrambled to contain the fallout.
Dallas didn’t say a single word to anyone. He gripped his cane, his knuckles stark white, and walked straight past the staff. He bypassed the living room entirely, marched into his private study, and slammed the heavy oak doors shut. The click of the deadbolt echoed in the hallway.
He was locking himself away.