Chapter 37 The Front Page Offensive
Aurora:
The silence after my declaration was thicker than the penthouse glass. Elara Vance’s polished composure fractured, just for a heartbeat. A secret affair was a scandal she could manipulate. A secret marriage was a fortress she couldn’t storm.
“I see,” she said, the words icy. Her gaze swept over our joined hands, a final, calculating assessment. “This is… a significant development. My principals will be… informed.” She offered a tight, meaningless smile. “This is not over.”
She left, the soft chime of the elevator a mockery of the tension she left in her wake.
The moment the doors sealed, the practical reality of what I’d just done crashed down on me. Levi turned, his amber eyes wide with a mixture of awe and alarm. “Aurora. What have we just done? We’ve declared a war we aren’t fully ready to fight.”
“No,” I said, my journalist’s mind already clicking into gear, assembling the pieces of a new narrative. “We just moved the battlefield to a place they don’t understand. They work in shadows and boardrooms. We’re going to work in the headlines. You can’t make two children and their mother disappear if the whole world is watching them.”
I pulled out my phone and called the only person I trusted with this.
“Mags. Listen, I need you. I’ll explain everything once you get here. I’m sending you the address, now.”
“Spitfire? What’s wrong? Where? You sound… different.”
“The biggest story of your career,” I said, my voice steady. “And I am the lead. I’ll tell you everything when you arrive.”
Maggie arrived within the hour, a whirlwind of vibrant energy in a tailored coat. Her sharp eyes took in the opulent prison, the hulking presence of Jax by the door, the exhausted intensity of Lucas over his screens, and finally, Levi, my husband, standing protectively close to me. Her gaze landed on Aria and Lior, who were peeking from the hallway and softened a little.
“Okay, Anderson,” she said, dropping her bag and pulling me into a quick, hard hug. She lowered her voice, for my ears only. “So, the one-night-stand that gave you the twins and that weird glowing mark finally decided to make an honest woman out of you? And he’s Levi Kingston?” She pulled back, her eyes wide with a mix of shock and fierce loyalty.
“Start talking. Are we exposing a corrupt regime or launching a lifestyle brand? The aesthetic in here is ‘billionaire fortress chic,’ and I’m intrigued.”
So, I laid it out. The public version, the safer one. I told her about the dangerous, shadowy faction, a vague but true enough term for the Council. That had threatened us. I told her how Levi had married me to protect me and our children. I explained that our secrecy was a shield, and now, that shield had to become a spotlight.
Maggie listened, her expression shifting from shock to grim determination. “So, we’re flipping the script. We’re not a scandal; we’re a love story. An epic, protective, ‘family above all’ saga.”
A brilliant, wicked grin spread across her face. “I love it. This is my kind of chaos. Let’s give them a story they’ll never forget.”
She immediately got on the phone with her best contacts in the entertainment and gossip divisions. While she worked her magic, I turned to the logistical nightmare.
“Lucas,” I said, approaching his command station. “We need a photo. Something genuine, but ‘leaked.’ Blurry, intimate. Can you pull a still from the internal security feed?”
Before Lucas could answer, Maggie was at his shoulder, peering at his screens.
“Yeah, Tech-Support. We need something that says ‘devoted family man,’ not ‘staged photo op.’ Can you make it look like it was taken on a burner phone from a mile away?”
Lucas didn’t look up from his keyboards, his fingers flying.
“I can make a high-resolution satellite image look like it was taken by a toaster. A burner phone is a simple request.”
Maggie blinked, then a slow, appreciative smile touched her lips.
“Okay, then. You’re useful.” She nudged an empty coffee cup toward him. “Now, caffeinate your new favorite media strategist.”
To my astonishment, Lucas paused his work, stood, and went to the espresso machine. He returned and placed a perfect latte beside her. Maggie stared at it, then at his retreating, genuinely speechless for the first time since I’d known her.
The plan snapped into place with terrifying speed. Lucas found a moment: Levi, just this morning, his hand gently on my back as we watched the twins play, his expression unguarded and tender. Lucas aged the digital file, added grain, and within an hour, it was in the inbox of Maggie’s most reliable tabloid contact.
The story broke just after dusk.
EXCLUSIVE: BILLIONAIRE LEVI KINGSTON’S SECRET FAMILY! A Hidden Marriage to Protect His Children.
We watched it spread across social media, a firestorm of speculation and, to my relief, overwhelming public sympathy. The phone in the penthouse began to ring incessantly, news desks, talk shows, old colleagues. Levi’s PR team, now brought into a carefully controlled loop, went into overdrive.
We stood together at the window, watching the first news vans gather like metal beetles on the street below. Our children were now public figures. Our love was now a headline. There was no going back.
Levi’s arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me close against his side. “There’s no hiding now, Aurora.”
I leaned into his solid strength, the bond between us humming not with fear, but with a fierce, united purpose.
The weight of his arm felt less like a claim and more like an anchor. To my surprise, I found I didn’t mind it. I didn’t mind the closeness, the scent of him, the way my body fit so naturally against his. The constant, low-grade alarm that had been my life for weeks finally stilled into a quiet, resonant hum.
A genuine, weary smile touched my lips for the first time all day. We had stepped off a cliff, but we were falling together.
“Good,” I whispered, watching our new, manufactured reality unfold below. “Hiding was killing us. Now we fight in the light.”
The bond hummed in agreement, a thread of steel resolve woven through the connection between us. A cold, clear certainty settled in my chest, quieting the last of my fear. The Council started this war in the shadows, I thought, my gaze fixed on the glittering, unknowing city. We just made our move in the open. Our story is live. Our family is the headline.
I leaned my head against Levi’s shoulder, my voice dropping to a whisper only he could hear.
“Let’s see what they do next.”