The air in Knox’s office crackled with unspoken tension. He barked orders into the phone, his voice low and guttural, a language I didn’t understand but could sense the urgency in. He gestured for me to sit on a worn leather couch in the corner, keeping me within his line of sight, but not directly involved in his phone calls.
I cradled Lily, her small body a warm comfort against the cold dread that still gripped me. The thought of Lucas’s audacious deception, not just against me and the town, but against a man like Knox, was staggering.
Just as Knox hung up the phone, a small vibration buzzed against my leg. My phone. I pulled it out, cautiously. It was a local news alert from the Oakhaven Gazette.
My eyes scanned the headline: “General Marcus Calder Issues Statement Regarding Clara Higgins and Oakhaven Allegations.”
My heart leaped. General Calder. I clicked on it.
The article quoted an official press release from General Calder’s public relations office. It began: “General Marcus Calder wishes to formally refute the malicious and fabricated rumors circulating in the Oakhaven community regarding Ms. Clara Higgins.”
It went on to detail the exact circumstances of our flight encounter, explaining that I was merely a passenger he assisted, seeking a moment of peace from a viral media frenzy. It explicitly stated that “Ms. Higgins is a woman of impeccable character and integrity, caught unknowingly in a desperate attempt by another individual to deflect from their own misdeeds.”
The statement concluded with a stern warning against “the spread of baseless allegations” and affirmed General Calder’s “full confidence in Ms. Higgins’s honor and standing.”
I reread it, my vision blurring slightly. The General had come through. He hadn’t forgotten me. He hadn’t let Lucas’s narrative stand.
At the same moment, Knox’s second phone, a sleek black smartphone, buzzed with an incoming text. He picked it up, glanced at the screen, and his thick eyebrows rose slightly. He clicked a link.
His eyes scanned the same article I was reading, his expression shifting from grim focus to a flicker of something almost akin to… satisfaction.
“General Calder,” Knox muttered, more to himself than to me. “A man who values his word.”
He looked up from the phone, his gaze locking onto mine. “This helps your case, Clara Higgins. A lot.”
He then picked up his rotary phone again, dialing another number. “Evelyn Montgomery,” he growled into the receiver. “You just got a press release from General Calder’s office. And I just got a ledger that proves Lucas Higgins is a fraud. You tell the guild board that the eviction notice on Clara’s shop is null and void. And that Lucas Higgins will not be getting that commercial lease. Understood?”
I could only imagine Evelyn Montgomery’s stunned silence on the other end. General Calder’s official statement, coming from such an unimpeachable source, wouldn’t just counter Lucas’s lies; it would obliterate them. And with Knox now involved, Evelyn wouldn’t dare cross him.
The tide was turning. The powerful silence of the General’s word, combined with the brutal practicality of Knox’s influence, was systematically dismantling Lucas’s entire house of cards.
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