Page 186 of Challenge Me

“This is bigger than bad press, Mr. Darya. Surely you can see that.”

I gestured toward Renshu across the table. “You can fix this, right?”

He opened his mouth, then closed it as he glanced around. “I’ll do what I can, of course, but clearly, this is bigger than me. While they sort all that out, you need to distance yourself from him.”

“And if I don’t?”

They all looked at one another. Wrong answer, I guess.

“Amir,” Vera said, her voice sounding more reasonable than the others. She touched my arm and dug her nails in slightly, probably to make me stop shooting daggers at the people around me. “The league is going to require an investigation. Blackmail is a criminal matter. Even if he’s lying, the optics—”

“Optics,” I scoffed. “You think I care about optics right now?”

“You have to. People are already talking, and the longer you stay quiet, the more leverage there is against you.”

“There’s no leverage because there was no blackmail. End of story. We move on like we should have this entire time.”

Renshu sighed. “Amir, you need to get ahead of this. We’re drafting a statement. Something neutral. You’ll say you’re disappointed that he misrepresented the nature of your relationship, but you’re committed to transparency.”

“I guess that’s reasonable enough,” I said reluctantly.

The woman from legal dipped her head. “Then we need to discuss the possibility of filing a formal disavowal. Or”—she hesitated—”a cease and desist.”

“I told you I don’t want to take any legal action.”

“It may be necessary. It shows you’re not allowing this behavior to continue.”

“You can’t be painted as a victim,” Renshu agreed.

“I’m not taking legal action against Remi.” My voice cracked on his name.

“While we strongly recommend it,” the other attorney said, “we can consider another route.”

“Good.”

“We can discredit him.”

Blinking, I tried to catch up, but I wasn’t given a chance to speak.

Renshu jumped into action, flipping open a folder already prepared with what must’ve been evil plans. “We issue a statement that he has a history of instability. You were trying to help him, but it got out of control. Remi’s video is a betrayal of that goodwill, but he also praised you for being an honorable man, so that actually helps us.”

“It protects Amir,” Shawn agreed. “It paints him as a do-gooder, and it won’t be hard to convince anyone that Remi is unstable. Clara’s interviews can back that up.”

“Amir, you’ll remain completely separated from him. No contact, no showing up at his bar, no public statements defending him. We can’t look like we’re still”—he gestured vaguely—”whatever this is.”

“Maybe we can get McKinney on this too,” another person from PR suggested.

“Oh, that’s a good idea. Since they’re already friends, it works in our favor.”

A laugh escaped me, and the entire room went silent. I dropped my face into my hands, riding out the break in my sanity.

“This isn’t funny,” Shawn said.

When I looked around, I laughed some more. “It’s hysterical. Are you all insane?”

“This is for your protection,” Vera reminded me.

“No, this is you trying to control the narrative.”