Chapter 42: The Public Showdown

The Pierce Corp. downtown building gleamed under the noon light like a glass fortress hiding decades of secrets behind its mirrored façade. Today, though, the scandal threatening to break one of the most powerful families in the city drew the throng assembling outside rather than the modern beauty or height of the structure. Head of Pierce Corp and a man once admired by the business elite, Victor Pierce was now ready to pay for the allegations that had shocked the city.

Inside, each jockeying to have a better view of the stage, reporters packed the large conference room. As cameras positioned and mics were calibrated, the soft buzz of conversation hummed in expectancy. Every eye moved to the empty platform, poised to watch how Victor would defend the heap of information now stacked against him. Aidan stayed at the rear of the hall, his gaze fixed on the stage and his fingers clenching into close fists.

Victor arrived with a well-made assurance, his tailored suit perfect, his manner one of calm dominance. He was trying to radiate the force he was fast losing with every deliberate, measured step toward the podium. He cleared his throat, and the room went still as pens poised and the reporters held their breaths.

"My family has been attacked by vicious rumors," Victor continued, his voice calm but with a steely edge not overlooked. "I have enemies ready to stop at nothing to see me fall. But I will reassure you—these accusations are completely false.

There was a quiet murmur all through the assembly. Victor's gaze strayed over the room until they focused on Aidan near the back. Aidan refused to turn away and squarely faced his cold glare. Victor continued without flashing eyes.

"Yes," he said, his voice weighed with false sadness, "even if those attacks come from people I once trusted."

Aidan felt a flash of anger, but he restrained himself. He looked cool, but inwardly his irritation grew. As Victor launched his attack, Aidan's tolerance wore thin and he positioned himself as the victim of a deliberate slander effort. He had listened too long to Victor's lies; he was not going to stand by any longer.

He advanced, negotiating the assembly till he came to front. Sensing a conflict, reporters shifted their cameras toward him, intrigued by the unexpected change.

Aidan's voice slashed steadily and precisely across the room. "You call it an attack, Victor?" he said, cutting like a knife. "What would you say to describe the death of your sister-in-law? Years of incarceration for her would be labeled as what?

The audience gasped together; flashes went out when the cameras showed the fear spreading over the hall. Reporters began busily writing, eyes darting between Aidan and Victor, their interest rising into fervor. This one was their planned main event.

The quiet mask of Victor slid for a few tenth of a second. His face grew hostile, but he straightened right away and spoke softly. That absurdity is Sneering under direction, my nephew muttered clearly disconnected from reality. "I tried to help him but envy and resentment have poisoned his mind."

Aidan lifted a folder, his hold firm on the papers probably wiping Victor's last wall of security. Then explain these, he said, his voice steady as he opened the folder to reveal medical records, financial data, and a sequence of events that told a horrible tale. "Explain why my mother, who apparently died years ago, has been receiving medical treatment at a clandestine facility under your control."

On the point of their chairs was the audience. Zoom cameras captured every detail of the papers Aidan was holding. Reporters screamed over one another and fired inquiries in their rush to break the story. Victor's face turned pale as he tried to respond, his confident approach broken.

Victor said, "This is a baseless accusation," in a faltering voice. He tried to grin, but it came out more as a grimace. His obsession with my nephew clearly inspired him to gather proof. There is not one bit of this real.

"Oh, it's real," Aidan answered with a fatal calm. "Your name runs all over these records; they were acquired legally.

Victor's fury surged, and he retreated from the podium as if distance would shield him from the reality there in front of him. The reporters relentlessly asked more exact, more demanding questions.

"Mr. Pierce, are you making-up the death of your sister-in-law?"

"What should one answer claims of criminal conspiracy and fraud?"

"Are you quitting from Pierce Corp. as CEO?"

The clamony of voices muffled Victor's responses. His knuckles white as he struggled to manage the situation, he clutched the podium's edge. The audience was no longer under his control; the truth was slinking through his fingers, shredding his skillfully built façade.

Aidan walked toward his uncle among the disorder, his voice low enough for just Victor to hear. "It's over, Victor," he said, his voice gently jubilant. "It's over now; you've misled, lied, and hurt everyone around you. The world sees you, really.

Victor's eyes turned cold and his sneer returned. "You think this is over simply because you turned a few cameras on me?" he said. "Aidan, you really are a moron. Not until I say it is, lad, is it done.

Victor pushed his way through the mob, looking past Aidan last. Rather, reporters hurried about Aidan, their microphones jammed in his face as they mercilessly questioned him.

"Aidan, for what length of time have you known of your mother's detention?"

" What will you do now Pierce Corp is in crisis?"

"Do you have more evidence refuting Victor Pierce?"

Aidan inhaled consistently to enable him to become used to the great concentration. He greeted the cameras coolly, his voice steady as he spoke. "My mother suffers because of Victor Pierce's actions." And so have a great number more others. I won't rest until he answers for every crime he has done. This is simply beginning.

Every word the reporters drank in the room was consumed with enormous fervor. The cameras kept flashing, catching the will in his eyes and the restrained resolve signaling the war still to come as they hung on his every word.

Closing his remarks, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He vanished from the cameras, fixed on the screen. The message on an unnamed phone was "You may have turned the people against me, but you have no idea what you have started. This is unfinished.

Aidan felt gloom over him and quickened heart. Looking at the pandemonium Victor had left in his path, he knew this was far from the end.