Page 118 of Forty, Flirty & Framed

Connor is the first to break it, with a snort that quickly evolves into full-blown laughter.

Luke joins in, and even Viktoria's stern expression cracks into a reluctant smile.

"This isn't amusing…” I tell the room.

"It's hysterical," Connor manages between gasps."You're being asked to carry a flag for a country you don't live in, based on a viral hashtag about your thighs, while being offered reality TV stardom and a castle tour."

Put that way, the absurdity of the situation is undeniable.

I feel the strangest sensation building in my chest, and to my horror, a laugh escapes before I can fucking stop it.

"There he is," Luke says approvingly."I was starting to think we'd lost you to datapoints and righteous indignation."

I shake my head, the tension of the past forty-eight hours finally cracking."This is insane.All of it."

"Welcome to viral fame," Connor says dryly."It's a hell of a drug."

The momentary lightness fades as I refocus on the evidence before me."So Richard and Duncan conspired to discredit Karina, knowing she had fabricated credentials."

"Yes," Viktoria confirms."And based on the timing of Duncan's statement at the party, he deliberately orchestrated the revelation for maximum impact to the acquisition negotiations."

"He knew the board would panic," I realize."That investors would question my judgment.That the public spectacle would leverage my embarrassment into concessions."

"Not just that," Viktoria says."My analysis shows that Duncan's team was behind the explicit #KiltedCasanova content from the beginning."

This pulls me up short."What about the original posts?The more innocent ones?"

"Those appear to have come from inside Abernathy Corp," Luke says carefully."But not from Karina's accounts, despite the login credentials."

The pieces finally click into place."Someone else at Abernathy started this, and Duncan's team escalated it for their purposes."

"Exactly," Viktoria confirms."They took an embarrassing but relatively harmless viral moment and transformed it into something that could genuinely threaten the acquisition."

I sit with this revelation, reassessing everything I thought I knew about the past several weeks."So where does this leave us?"

"With options," Connor says firmly."Duncan manipulated the situation.Richard set Karina up.None of that excuses her credential fraud, but it does put it in a different context."

"And what about the acquisition?"I ask, focusing on the business implications first, safer territory than my jumbled feelings about Karina.

"That's where this gets interesting," Luke says with a slow smile."Duncan doesn't know we've uncovered his connection to Richard.Or his team's involvement in the explicit content campaign."

"Leverage," I murmur, seeing the strategic advantage emerging.

"Precisely," Viktoria agrees."And there's one more thing you should see."She pulls up an analytics dashboard on her screen."The #BeyondYourLabel hashtag that emerged after Karina's exposure has gone viral in its own right.People are sharing their stories of credential gatekeeping and systemic barriers."

I scan the data, noting the engagement metrics exceeding even the original #KiltedCasanova campaign."This is...unexpected."

"It's an opportunity," Connor comments, blue eyes sparking."To change the narrative again.To take something potentially destructive and make it constructive."

I lean back in my chair, considering the possibilities.

For the first time since the engagement party, I feel something other than betrayal and anger.

I feel a spark of the strategic thinking that built Abernathy Corp in the first place.

"Thank you," I say finally, looking at each of them."For the intervention.And the information."

"Does this mean you'll talk to her?"Connor asks directly.