Chapter 106 - Showdown

"...Elias! Elias Blackwell...Over here!"

Dane kept a forced smile plastered onto his face, as he stood there still and rigid.

Elections were in full swing.

The fake and disgusting elites that prowled the election hall, filled the entire room with the media in tow. Cameras flashed. Media persons swarmed Dane and the other candidates with their microphones, gluing the camera onto their faces. The crowd of elites was fiery with chatter amongst themselves as the amount of votes presented on the screen were displayed live.

Numbers were going up and down, fluctuating by each candidates's speeches and interviews.

Elias Blackwell, known to all as the CEO of Silver Linings and wife stealer of Giovanni Blair, was currently in last place. It hadn't yet reached his time to make his speech as two other candidates including Giovanni, were headed up to speak. Giovanni Blair, who smugly stood beside him just steps away swarmed by the other media persons, wouldn't stop glaring at him.

Even now as they stood side by side, Dane had to hold back every urge from tearing out Giovanni's throat until his ugly self was shed to light in front of the media. The flashback of his lynx, sullied and broken that night he luckily arrived on time to find her, flooded his memories even when he didn't want them to.

Her skin was bruised, just as much as the tears in her eyes stained that beautiful porcelain skin. She had the begging look on her eyes for someone and anyone to save her, even if that meant she didn't dare wish to voice her pleas out loud. Which was why, he stripped himself down at that moment in time because he knew he loved her yet wouldn't admit so.

His eyes scanned the room for his lynx in the worries of his mind and found her standing obediently in the one place where he could see her. Prisana stood alone against the wall, blending in with the audience. He sighed in relief as no media person had disrupted her. And yet, he knew there were looks by men all across the room directed at her.

Some twisted part of him wanted to keep her all to himself and away from the wretched public. She was all lovely temptress wrapped into a slim fitted ankle length emrald dress. Elegance radiated from her natural relaxed poise, fitting of someone who has known how to blend in with the elites her whole life.

Light brown eyes fixated on Dane himself made him shudder with delight, knowing she was all his.

An attractiveness underneath her clothes only known to him seemed like torture to wait as when he laid eyes on her time and time again like this morning when she came out in that emerald dress, he yearned to feel every inch of her. He never knew love could truly turn a man blind to one woman. It made him silly yet it made him strong because with his lynx around him like now, he knew he could conquer all.

She smiled back at him and that was all he needed to have courage as Elias Blackwell.

"...Giovanni," Dane's ears picked up on what was being spoken beside him, blurring out the media person interviewing him. "...About the incident involving your ex-wife, what do you have to say about the other candidate Elias Blackwell?"

Dane had to ball his hands into fists as they stared into the other's eyes with mutual contempt. Giovanni continued looking at him while speaking, just as media persons swarming them began to focus both men into the same lens.

"Elias Blackwell...If there's one thing I have to say, it's that....I'm glad that you've taken that wretched woman off of my hands. Prisana has always been spolied goods. A woman who only thinks about the worth of her partners. Obedient, stupid, and selfish woman who couldn't even make her vows last!"

By now, there must have been a vein that popped out from Dane's skin because every blood rushing through his body was boiling. Boiling that Giovanni was slandering his dear wife. He could tolerate things that were said about him. 'Wife stealer', 'mysterious fake CEO', and other such atrocities. Yet, when someone vile like Giovanni uttered her name on top of lies, he couldn't stand to take it.

Dane's face no longer wore that fake smile but turned into a very thin, displeased straight line.

"Giovanni Blair. Now that we're in the same lens it seems like now is a good time as any to shed some truths."

He looked straight into the media's lens. "My wife Prisana Visalyaputra never made vows with Giovanni. She ran before they could tie her down."

By they, he meant the senator but of course slandering that man was yet impossible.

"L-Lies!" Giovanni shouted. "Where is your proof?"

Dane openly smirked because he already wanted to clear his wife's name. He pulled out a list of Prisana's marriage records.

"I have her marriage record right here," he showed the record to the media as those witnessing it were gasping and gossiping.

Gradually, Dane and Giovanni were garnering the attention of all the media. People gradually migrated to them and even left the current person giving their interviews or speeches to focus on the two of them. Now, even the main live elections channel were focused solely on them. Dane's plans were skyrocketing beyond what he imagined and yet he continued to improvise with ease.

"Hah," Giovanni scoffed. "You could have fabricted the evidence. Where is your proof now?"

The media and elites were biting onto his every word. They were even agreeing with what he said.

"I have someone who was present that night of the wedding that can testify about what happened...Harry, come forward."

Harry Plaskitt was someone that he hated, and yet another candidate to become a member of the Senator's council. Hatred was mutual between both men and yet money and greed won Harry over. Dane offered him a sum that he couldn't refuse. Harry stepped up into the spotlight as the cameras flashed to him.

"...That night, I as well as several other families can testify that we were silenced on the wedding day. Prisana Visalyaputra never made it to her vows."

The crowd including the media was going wild.

Dane continued while he looked into Giovanni's shocked features, "You can make her as the villain of this story but to me she is the biggest hero of all. She saved me from darkness and continues guidng me toward the good of this world that I didn't think I deserved. She had to lie in front of the public because of her circustances stripped all that she could become and broke her with few choices. To me Prisana is a wife and lynx who is courageous, smart, and selfless. Not the kind of woman that you claim to know....She is that kind of woman....The kind of woman that I love. If I hear you slandering my wife's good name again then mark my words Giovanni....Retribution will be given to you a hundreds times over."

The vile man was left speechless before him. Dane looked to the screen and saw that his votes on the live polls were gradually climbing up to where he stood in third place. Someone's clap however, diverted all eyes and ears.

"Nice speech there but I'll have to rain down on your parade...Could you care to tell us why you have been lying to everyone this entire time?"

"...It's the senator!" someone shouted.

Senator Visalyaputra walked into the room and commanded that the crowd make space for him to walk through until he was facing directly across Dane.

"Everyone! Listen closely. Elias Blackwell is a fake!...This man's true identity is....Dane Lennox."