Chapter 15 - The Absolute SilenceSecurity guards quickly converged on Alexander, grabbing him firmly by both arms before he could take another step toward the stage.
“Get your hands off me!” Alexander thrashed, his voice cracking with humiliation as flashbulbs blinded him from all directions. “Erin! You owe me! I gave you my name! I gave you this life!”
Erin stepped up to the podium. She adjusted the microphone, her voice smooth, calm, and effortlessly commanding as it echoed off the crystal chandeliers of the grand ballroom.
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,” Erin said, her tone as steady as a glacier. “Please pardon the brief interruption. It seems some people spend their entire lives trying to crash rooms they were never qualified to enter in the first place.”
A ripple of low laughter and immediate, appreciative applause swept through the crowd.
Alexander froze in the grip of the security guards. The words hit him harder than any physical blow. He realized, with crushing, absolute finality, that he wasn't even a threat to her anymore. He was merely an embarrassing, irrelevant footnote in a story she had long since finished writing.
“Remove him from the premises,” Erin instructed the security detail calmly, not breaking eye contact with him for a single second.
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As the guards dragged a weeping, broken Alexander backward out the grand doors, Erin turned her gaze back to the audience, offering a radiant, untouchable smile.
“Now,” she continued smoothly, “let’s talk about building a future that cannot be bought, sold, or stolen.”
