Chapter 296 Different Values

Chapter 296: Chapter 296 Different Values

Sebastian’s POV

The press conference ended in chaos, and the moment we were back inside my office Fynn rounded on me.

"Alpha, you were supposed to keep it together." His jaw was tight, his voice low and clipped. "The whole point of that conference was to clear up the rumors about Emilia. Not to pour gasoline on the fire."

I said nothing, which only wound him up further.

"I can already see tomorrow’s front page," he went on. "CEO loses his temper, assaults a reporter. That’s the headline you just handed them, gift-wrapped."

I loosened the tie I’d knotted too tight that morning, pulled it free, and tossed it onto the desk.

"I don’t give a shit. They should be thrilled their heads are still on their necks."

The reporter’s question kept circling back at me. Is she actually happy, or is that just what you’ve decided for her? Of course she was happy. She was happy with me.

But I kept seeing that look she got sometimes, the quiet sadness behind her eyes, the way her mouth would open and then close again like she’d swallowed whatever she really wanted to say. Lately Emilia had been playing everything off as fine, and it sat wrong with me. Maybe that unease was exactly why I’d lost my grip in front of all those cameras.

"Easy," Ryder murmured. "She’s ours. She isn’t going anywhere. Breathe."

I exhaled slowly, and the heat in my chest began to bank down.

Fynn watched the tension drain out of my shoulders and finally let his own guard down a fraction. "I’ll get PR on it. Let them handle the cleanup. You stay out of sight for now, understood?"

I gave him a short nod, and my ever-competent Beta turned and left.

I’d barely had thirty minutes of quiet when there was a knock at the door and someone informed me that a woman named Abigail Tanner was here to see me.

The video had been pulled almost instantly, but plenty of people had already seen it. Abigail among them, apparently. She came through the door like a storm front, and she didn’t even wait for it to close behind her.

"Do you have any idea what you’ve done today?"

"No," I said, not bothering to look up.

"You should never have held a press conference for a woman like that. And you certainly shouldn’t have made enemies of half the press corps for her sake. The clip of you throwing that water bottle has leaked, Sebastian. The entire internet is tearing you apart. Are you even aware of that?"

"Then let them tear. It doesn’t matter."

My indifference clearly gutted her.

"Where has your judgment gone?" she demanded. "Emilia is nothing but trouble. A man in your position avoids women like her, or she’ll drag you into one mess after another for the rest of your life."

I raised my head slowly and met her eyes. "She’s my wife. I don’t get to throw her away when it’s inconvenient."

"And you don’t get to shoulder all of it either. Do you understand what a stunt like this does to your stock price?"

"If I lose a little money and it clears my wife’s name as some gold-digger, then I’d call that a bargain."

She hadn’t expected me to come down so hard on Emilia’s side, and I could see it pushing her toward the edge. "Sebastian, how can you be like this?"

"And what exactly would you have me do instead? Sit on my hands while they carve her up in public?"

"Yes. That’s precisely what you should do." She stepped closer, her voice climbing. "Emilia is a private citizen. Bad press about a nobody blows over on its own. Give it time and it fades. But you are not a nobody. You are a name in this industry. Your responsibility isn’t to her, Sebastian, it’s to your pack’s company."

I let out a low, humorless laugh and fixed her with a stare cold enough to make her still.

"You know, Abigail, for a long time I regretted those three years we spent apart." I held her gaze, unblinking. "But I don’t anymore. Because those three years showed me exactly how far apart your values sit from mine. And that gap, I think, is wider than anything either of us could ever cross."

I watched the color drain out of Abigail’s face.

She was trembling when she spoke. "What do you mean by that?"

Abigail and I had loved each other once. Deeply. We’d been the kind of lovers who would have carved each other’s names into our own skin without a second thought. And now here we stood, two familiar strangers separated by everything.

"I don’t abandon my mate the moment things get hard," I said. "I stay. I stand beside her and we get through it together. I don’t run. I don’t throw her away. What she needs is someone who won’t leave, and that’s exactly what I intend to be."

The gloom in Abigail’s expression deepened until it swallowed whatever warmth had ever lived there.

"Alpha Sebastian," she said, "you’ve disappointed me."

She forced the words out through a shaking breath, then clamped a hand over her mouth and fled the office in tears. At the door she nearly collided with Fynn, who’d just raised his fist to knock. The two of them locked eyes for a heartbeat. Neither said a word. Then she was gone.

Fynn stepped inside and shut the door behind him.

"Alpha, I have that information you wanted. On the reporter."

"Go on."

"He’s a fraud. Not a real journalist at all. Someone paid him to plant himself in that room and stir the pot on purpose." Fynn set a folder on my desk. "And here’s the interesting part. Whoever put him up to it looks to be the same people who leaked the scandal in the first place. This was never about Emilia. The whole thing was aimed at the pack’s company. At us."

"Let it be," Ryder rumbled at the back of my mind, low and watchful. "But watch closely. Men like these don’t strike once."

I nodded slowly, my fingers tapping the edge of the folder.

"Keep a leash on him," I said. "Follow him for the next few days. I want to know every person he meets, every hand that feeds him."

"Understood."

Fynn hesitated. When he finally spoke, his voice came out cautious. "So... what happened with Miss Tanner? She looked like the ground had just dropped out from under her.

My face hardened. "Ignore her."