"If you’re done gawking, can we begin?" Nix said as he took his seat, motioning for Elisa to sit beside him. One of his secretaries imdiately stepped forward, attempting to help Elisa with Nyxella, but Nyxella turned her face away, quietly refusing the gesture. The secretary’s smile faltered the mont she noticed the rejection.
Elisa offered a small, apologetic smile, ready to say sothing maybe anything to ease the sudden tension, but Nix lifted a hand, dismissing the secretary before she could speak.
"I’ll take care of her," he said, his voice calm but firm. The statent drew a ripple of surprise through the boardroom; even the board mbers exchanged quick glances.
"I heard whispers," Nix continued, raising an eyebrow as his cool gaze swept across the long table. "But I doubt I heard correctly. Care to elaborate on what you were discussing?" His tone sharpened, slicing through the room’s silence.
No one dared to speak. Instead eyes dropped and shoulders stiffened. The air thickened heavy with the kind of fear only Nix could command. Soone at the far end of the room shifted uncomfortably; another cleared his throat and quickly looked away. The hum of the air conditioner suddenly felt too loud.
"Since no one has anything to say," Nix finally said, leaning back, "let’s proceed. I’ve been receiving complaints claims that I’m not in the rightful position to designate duties or give instructions." His voice was steady, cutting with precision.
"So..." His gaze drifted to Elisa.
She struggled quietly beside him, trying to keep Nyxella from tearing the docunts in front of her to shreds. For a fleeting second, sothing softened in Nix’s eyes an unguarded warmth, quick and subtle.
But just as quickly, it vanished too fast for anyone else in the room to notice.
"I brought the rightful leader."
"What cruel ga are you playing, Nix Dean? A few months ago it was publicly announced that your wife was dead..."
Elisa’s heart dropped the mont the words left Louis’s mouth. A sharp, crushing pain spread through her chest cold, suffocating, and rciless. She had prepared herself for many things before returning... but not this. She had chosen to disappear to protect herself, to protect Nyxella... yet she never imagined the state Nix would be thrust into. The headlines. The speculations. The insults. The hate. How he must have stood in front of the world, expression unreadable, while carrying a wound heavier than she ever allowed herself to understand.
"...and now you appear out of nowhere to tell us she’s still.. "
"I can see Mr. Louis isn’t as conversant with actual news as I assud," Nix cut in, his tone dropping into sothing dark and cold. "Because if you were..." his eyes narrowed, voice dipping even lower, "...you would understand she is Elisa Sorrento. Not Carla Dean."
He tilted his head, not breaking eye contact until Louis flinched and looked away.
Despite the tightening tension in the room, little Nyxella remained in her own world. She clapped her hands together, smiling brightly at Nix who wasn’t even looking at her.
"Papa!" she called, reaching for him with both hands.
Elisa tried to hold her back, whispering her na urgently, but Nyxella wriggled with pure determination. And then unexpectedly a smile slipped across Nix’s lips. Soft, uncontrolled and real.
He rose from his seat and simply reached for the little girl, lifting her from Elisa’s arms with an ease that silenced even the boldest critic in the room.
"It hasn’t even been a year since his wife passed," soone muttered under their breath, "but here he is with a child... with his wife’s sister."
Nix’s head snapped toward the speaker. His glare was lethal—
sharp enough to cut through the air.
"At least I didn’t have an ’intimate mont’ with my daughter the way you.. "
"Nyxella isn’t his daughter," Elisa blurted out.
Silence detonated through the room.
Everything, every sound, and every breath fell dead.
The world seed to shift.
A slow, slicing ache tore across Nix’s chest, raw and unexpected. Her words struck him with the precision of a blade, not because they were new, but because they were public. Because they stripped him bare in front of n who already sharpened their knives against him.
For a heartbeat, he didn’t move. Didn’t blink.
The muscle in his jaw tightened sharply.
Then his anger redirected, burning through him as he turned back toward the board mbers with an expression so emotionless it was terrifying.
"Mr. Louis," Nix said, voice chillingly calm, "given your recent... public image, I believe you should reflect deeply on the position you occupy here." He took a step forward, Nyxella resting calmly on his hip as though unaware of the storm unfolding. "Because if mory serves right, the last headline involving you had nothing to do with professionalism. Or integrity."
Louis shrank into his seat.
"In fact," Nix continued, sweeping his gaze across the entire board, "so of you should be far more concerned about your own scandals than the personal life of the man who kept this company from collapsing while you were too busy mismanaging it."
He adjusted Nyxella’s little hand against his shirt, eyes still razor-sharp.
"So let’s make it clear. If any of you feel bold enough to question my decisions or my family, do it properly." be made a deadly pause that felt as if the breathing of everyone had been placed on hold.
"To my face." A suffocating quiet settled over the boardroom. Nix’s last sentence hung in the air like a blade suspended over everyone’s throat. No one dared to breathe too loudly.
Nyxella tapped his chest with her tiny fingers, completely unaware of the terror her father’s voice had injected into the room. Nix glanced at her briefly just for half a second and whatever storm was twisting through him softened in her direction... only to sharpen again when he lifted his gaze back to the table.
"Good." His voice was low, almost a growl. "Now that we understand each other..."
He placed Nyxella gently on his lap as he sat not to calm himself, but as if anchoring her to him, making a silent statent of
This child is under my protection. Question her, question Elisa... and you challenge .
No one missed the unspoken ssage.
Louis swallowed hard. The man beside him shifted in his seat as though the room had grown unbearably hot.
Nix leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. "Let’s address the issue you all seem so desperate to dance around. My leadership."
One of the board mbers, a woman known for her sharp tongue, straightened as if attempting to recover control. But Nix lifted a finger not even looking at her.
"You will speak when I permit you," he said quietly. "Not before."
A shiver rippled across the room. Elisa’s breath hitched. She had always known Nix could command a room... but this was different. This was a man who had carried grief on his shoulders, betrayal in his chest, and now stood on the edge of sothing far more dangerous a cold, calculated resolve.
"Mr. Louis," Nix continued, "you are under internal review for mishandling company funds. Yet sohow, you found the audacity to question my personal affairs."
Louis’s face paled.
"And you," Nix’s attention snapped to another board mber, Mr. Hale, who visibly stiffened. "You were the one leaking internal reports to competitors. Should I continue? Because if we’re exposing personal sins today, I assure you none of you are clean." murmurs broke out, low and panic filled the chest all that knew their atrocities as Nix slamd his palm on the table there was a sudden revibration in the atmosphere that brought everything back from their clouded thoughts.
Except Nyxella who believed they were all playing a ga. She only blinked and then patted his cheek, whispering, "Papa..."
That single word was enough to keep him from shattering the table in half.
He inhaled slowly.
"As far as leadership is concerned," he said, voice regaining its cold control, "I called you all here for one reason..."
His gaze drifted toward Elisa, just for a mont long enough for her to feel exposed, but not long enough for anyone else to truly understand the aning.
"...to present the person who holds the rightful authority."
A tension-filled silence followed.
"She is the one Carla entrusted before her passing," Nix added although it was a lie, he needed to say those words to convince everyone present and keep her close to him "Her choice.. not yours. And certainly not mine. But the company bylaws acknowledge her position."
Whispers erupted again, incredulous, panicked, disbelieving.
"That is impossible.. "
"Why would she choose.. "
Nix raised a hand and dead silence fell again in the room.
"You are not required to understand her decision," he said. "You are required to respect it."
His eyes settled on Louis, sharp and rciless.
"And if that is a problem... the door is behind you. Feel free to resign before you are removed."
The man looked down, with his fists clenched, knowing he was cornered.
Nix stood up again, and Nyxella held securely against him as if he would disappear at any mont
"Now," he said with finality, "if any board mber wishes to challenge Carla’s docunted wishes, bring your lawyers. Because mine are already waiting."
He paused, scanning each trembling face.
"Otherwise, sit down, shut up, and let us move forward."
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