Edric Hale returned legally like a hostile shareholder who didn't buy stock but emotional leverage.
He scheduled a press conference claiming:
"Morgan Fragrance lacks innovation sustainability."
Which was cruelly ironic because he attempted to destroy the one innovation his son had financially resurrected.
Lila confronted Dorian in his office after that announcement:
"You bought Morgan to save it. Your father wants to destroy it. Emotions confuse your board calendar."
Dorian replied:
"I evaluate vulnerability. My father weaponizes it."
"Then maybe buy vulnerability not with stock, but courage."
He went silent again, holding a perfume strip she handed because words fail men who built silence like a shield.
He whispered, extremely faint:
"Magnificent things eventually demand naming.""Then name it.""Some names stay too long," he murmured."So do bankruptcies."
He looked at her quietly. "And you stay longer than both."
For someone who spoke like data, that was heartbreakingly close to poetry she wanted but wouldn't force him to sign verbally.