2026-04-23 23:43:46
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Chapter 303: Deep Fake
Nathan turned the phone so she could see it, and watched the color drain out of Nina's face in real time.The clip was already past ten thousand shares by the time it loaded, climbing while they stood there watching it climb, the counter refreshing itself every few seconds like something alive. The thumbnail alone was enough. A woman who moved like Nina, tilted her head like Nina, tucked her hair behind her ear in that exact small habit only someone who'd sat across from her a hundred times would ever think to fake."That's not.." Nina's voice came out thin. "Nathan, that's not me. I swear to you, that never happened, I don't even know where that footage..""I know it's not real.""How do you know that so fast, you haven't even..""Because I know you," he said, simple, flat, no hesitation in it at all. "And because whoever built this got the walk right and the voice wrong. It's close. It's not you."She grabbed the phone from his hands and watched eleven seconds of it before she could
Chapter 302: Aftermath
The Delano house didn’t feel like the house Nathan had walked out of days earlier for a court hearing. Someone had opened every curtain. Someone had put music on low in the kitchen, something with a bit of brass in it, and the smell of actual cooking, not catering trays, drifted out into the hall the moment Nathan stepped through the front door.“You’re on time,” Nina said, meeting him in the entryway. “I’m shocked.”“I told you I’m not a billionaire. Billionaires are late. I’m just a guy with a car.”“Sure.” She took his jacket like it was the most natural thing in the world, hung it on the hook by the door, and for a second neither of them said anything, just stood there in the quiet hallway with the whole exhausting week finally, briefly, somewhere else.Dinner itself was almost aggressively normal, which felt like its own kind of miracle after the last seventy-two hours. Delano carved a roast at the head of the table and told a long, exaggerated story about a campaign stop years a
Chapter 301: Not A Billionaire
They stayed on the courthouse steps longer than any of them meant to, the crowd thinning slowly as reporters got their footage and moved on to file their pieces, the last of the cameras packing away as the afternoon light started going gold and low over the buildings across the street.Delano got pulled aside twice more, once by an aide with a stack of statements that needed his signature before the evening news cycle, once by an old political ally offering congratulations that sounded, to Nathan's ear, at least partly like a man already calculating what the win meant for next year's budget fights. Delano handled both with the easy patience of someone who'd been doing this longer than Nathan had been alive, and eventually waved off the rest of the line waiting to shake his hand, telling them all, cheerfully, that his daughter had somewhere to be and so did he.Nathan finally caught a quiet moment alone with Nina near the car, the folder still tucked under her arm like she wasn't ready
Chapter 300: The Man With A Hundred Arms
"First." Delano's eyes found Sterling, who had stopped near the courthouse doors on his way out, apparently not quite quick enough to escape being singled out. "Mr. Sterling. A man so exclusive I'm told the only way to get his attention is if a meteor's about to hit and you happen to be standing next to him." Laughter rippled through the crowd. "I don't know what convinced you to walk into a state courthouse on four hours' notice, but whatever it was, this city owes you a debt it will never be able to properly repay."Sterling inclined his head, unbothered, and said nothing, which somehow suited him better than any speech would have. Someone in the crowd started clapping again, uncertain at first, then joined by a dozen more, and Sterling accepted it the way he seemed to accept everything, with the mild patience of a man who had been applauded by better rooms than this one and would be again tomorrow."Second." Delano's gaze swung to Nathan, and something warmer crept into his voice n
Chapter 299: Victory
The courtroom had mostly emptied by then, the last of the reporters filing out toward the steps to catch whatever statement might come next, and the three of them stood in a pocket of sudden quiet near the emptied jury box, the kind of quiet that always feels strange right after a room's been loud for hours.Delano looked at him for a long moment before saying anything at all, an expression on his face that sat somewhere between gratitude and something more careful than gratitude, like a man doing arithmetic he couldn't quite finish."Congratulations, Sir D," Nathan said, extending his hand. "On winning."Delano ignored the hand and pulled him into a hug instead, brief but genuinely tight."If we still had a monarchy in this country," he said, stepping back, "I'd die a happy man knowing there was a young king on the throne after me who'd actually take this city somewhere worth going.""That's a lot of pressure to put on one handshake, sir""It wasn't a handshake. I hugged you." Delano
Chapter 298: Twenty-Two Years
Martha came out of her chair like something had bitten her."No!!" Her voice cracked across the courtroom, loud enough that the bailiff near the door actually flinched. "No, absolutely not, you cannot possibly... this needs to be reviewed. I want this reviewed right now.""Mrs. Delano, sit down.""I will not sit down!" She rounded on Whitfield, grabbing his sleeve. "Do something. That's what I'm paying you for, isn't it? Fix this."Whitfield murmured something low and useless about filing an appeal, and Martha shoved past him toward the bench itself before two bailiffs stepped in and blocked her path."There's money," she said, and her voice had gone thin and desperate now, all the polish gone out of it. "I have money, Your Honor, more money than you'll see in ten lifetimes on that salary. Name a number. Whatever gets this sentence down to something reasonable, I'll pay it, I'll pay it today!"The judge's gavel came down once, hard."Mrs. Delano, you have just attempted, on the record,
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