Penelope nodded at once, her face set with urgency.“Better,” she said. “That’s exactly what we need to do right now—and we need to do it quickly and quietly.”Her voice was firm, controlled, but charged with the pressure of everything that had just happened.“There’s no time to waste,” she continued. “No time at all.”She glanced briefly toward the unconscious female doctor, then back at her brother and father.“We’ve already done our best to keep this within ourselves,” she said. “We’ve tried to make sure there is no noise, no unnecessary fuss, no chance for the wrong people to hear about it.”Her eyes hardened.“And that is good. We should still be careful. But that doesn’t mean we should fold our hands and do nothing.”That last sentence settled heavily in the room.Because she was right.Keeping quiet and doing nothing were not the same thing.Protecting the family from scandal was one matter. Ignoring the reality that someone had almost killed their father was another entirely.

The moment their father finished speaking, Penelope’s brother nodded almost immediately, as though he had been waiting for the chance to align himself with that decision.“Yes,” he said at once. “Exactly. Exactly what Father just said is absolutely true.”His voice was firm again now, steadier than before, as if his father’s recovery had helped him recover his own footing too. The earlier panic and outrage had not disappeared entirely, but they had rearranged themselves into something more controlled something that sounded less like raw emotion and more like a man trying to reclaim authority in a situation that had nearly slipped from his hands.“There are too many people watching,” he continued. “Too many people who would be eager to notice if anything is wrong. There are so many people who are definitely going to be praying for a crack, and so many others who will be keeping their eyes open to see what is going on in this family.”He shook his head once.“Yes, the fact remains that

His voice remained practical, unhurried.“Simply say it was food poisoning,” he said. “Something minor. Something already resolved. Something that sounds ordinary enough that nobody feels the need to dig further.”He let that breathe for a second.“And then back it up with something visual.”Penelope tilted her head slightly.“Do a short video,” Liam said. “Show yourself active. Show yourself moving. Show yourself well.”He gestured lightly as he spoke, illustrating the idea without dramatizing it.“You can record yourself on a treadmill. Jogging lightly. Going through a simple routine. Something that looks natural and effortless.”His eyes remained on Penelope's father.“So that when anyone tries to push a bad narrative, the public has already seen something different,” he said. “They have already seen you healthy, active, and unbothered.”He folded his hands slightly.“Give them absolutely nothing to work with,” he said. “Play the game on your own terms.”The silence that followe

At that, Liam smiled.It was a quiet smile—easy, unhurried, and entirely without defensiveness. The kind of smile that belongs to someone who has long since made peace with who they are and no longer needs the world's approval to confirm it.“Well,Sir”he said, “you don't have to flatter me in that manner.”His voice was warm but grounded.“And nothing is wrong anywhere,” he added, with a slight tilt of his head. “This is literally who I am. This is what I am.”He held the statement simply, without apology, without performance.“I am an E-level citizen,” he said, “and I am proud to be one.”The room absorbed that.And somehow, the way he said it—with such complete and unshakeable ease made it land differently than anyone expected. There was no bitterness in it, no hidden plea for sympathy, no attempt to reframe or soften it. Just a man stating a truth about himself the same way he might state his own name.Penelope's father looked at him for a long moment after that.Then something in

Immediately Penelope's brother nodded slowly, his lips curling into something that was not quite a smile but wanted to be mistaken for one.“Good,” he said. “I'm glad you understand where you stand.”He adjusted his posture slightly, squaring his shoulders as though Liam's acceptance of reality had returned some invisible authority to him.“I'm glad you understand your lane,” he continued. “That is very, very satisfying to hear.”Then his expression shifted, Something calculating moved behind his eyes.“But I see what you're doing,” he said.He tilted his head slightly."You want more money,” he said. “That's why you're telling me all of this. That's why you're being so noble and humble and principled.”He almost smiled.“It's a negotiation,” he said. “I get it.”He waved his hand dismissively.“Fine,” he said. “I'll double it.”He looked at his phone screen briefly.“One million dollars.”He said it the way a man says it when he believes the number itself should end the conversation