Chapter 63.

Slade’s POV.

The air was thick — not just with camera flashes, but with the kind of noise that seeps into your head and refuses to leave. Questions. Murmurs. Whispers that sounded like judgment wrapped in curiosity. Every face in that hall was hungry for a headline, and I could feel it.

I’d expected chaos — I always did. But this felt heavier, like the air itself was trying to test me. Still, I smiled. That part I’d mastered.

Every flash of a camera was a ...