The Silver Crescent Prince

However, as soon as Maya smashed the recorder, another one started playing from someplace else. She flung her head in shock to find the source. 

[Maya: "If we do this, it would create a lot of confusion amongst the neotides. Tell your men to find Dawn and kill her. Kill a few more. If it comes to you, you just say that it was a routine cleanup and you were only favoring the Silvers."]

All at once, Pia interjected, "This is utter nonsense. Maya was extremely depressed because of Dawn. We all read her interview in the magazine. Why would a magazine publish an interview like that unless it was true?" 

Caleb supported her. He snarled, "Yes! Maya was depressed because of this neotide." He pointed at dawn. Even though Gayle had warned Caleb to not go against daryn, both he and Pia were so jealous of his younger brother that he didn't have slightest of the inclination to support him. "The fashion magazine only brought forward that was being suppressed for a long time." 

Gayle narrowed his eyes. He was about to say something, when all at once, a nasal voice from behind countered Pia's claim "No, it was Maya who insisted that the interview be published." All gazes went to the voice. A woman wearing black high pants and chiffon black top was standing behind the crowd. The lines around her eyes showed the years of experience she had in journalism.

"Irene!" Maya yelled from across the hall. "Are you mad? Why will I come to you? It was you who came to me." 

Irene picked her hands up in the air to stop her. She pursed her lips and then huffed. "Don't tell me that I was in the wrong because I am a journalist. I keep all my proofs." 

Maya's blood drained from her face. Irene was her old friend. How could she deceive her?

Irene glanced at Neal whose expressions were still stone cold. He had approached her two days back to enquire about the article. He had threatened to sue her magazine for writing false information about the CEO of The Silver House. He wanted her to write an apology to Daryn Silver for writing the depression theory without ascertaining facts. 

When Irene denied, he had slid the paper across her table. He had come prepared with a court paper – a lawsuit against her company. Irene shivered to the core. Who was she to stand up against The Silver House? She couldn't even speak a word against them. They were too strong an organization to make enemies with and her fashion magazine company was like trash. 

Maya's lips trembled when all her dark plans came into the forefront. The events took an unexpected downturn. There was a visible line of sweat on her forehead and below the chin. 

Once again the murmurs began. 

"What?" a pure blood said aloud. "We thought that Maya was genuinely depressed. She was only doing cheap PR?"

"Yes, and what is this scheme about killing the neotides for no reason?" 

Caleb and Pia were speechless. Pia supported Maya unconditionally but what transpired in front of her, left her quivering. It's not that she looked at Dawn favorably, but her trust in Maya rattled. Every time Daryn distanced himself from her, it was Pia who brought her closer. She was in awe of Maya's elegant style of living, little knowing her shallowness. 

Brad didn't even know how to face Gayle after the chaos. He was completely shame faced. His intention was to keep Gayle in the dark about the killings. Everything was supposed to subside quietly. But this kind of revelation meant that Gayle would press charges against him. Whoever broadcast and disclosed those tapes was in his shit list. He glared at Neal who only brushed his coat a little. 

Neal had done it all on Daryn's behest. It was his call that Daryn took in the afternoon on the beach. 

As for Gayle, he was so cold that everyone around him shivered knowing that he had suppressed mountain lava of anger behind those grey eyes. His facial lines were taut and tightly pulled. He walked up to Daryn and Dawn and said, "Let's leave." He completely ignored his elder son. 

Dawn felt a pain in her throat. Daryn had done so much for her. He had saved her face. She didn't know how to thank him but she knew that she would have done the same. She looked at Neal and silently thanked him. He truly was Daryn's knight, his right hand man. Only these two men showed their unconditional support to her. As for Gayle, she didn't know him that well…

They were about to leave when Maya screamed again. ""No! You can't leave." She looked at Pia. "Pia, tell them I was enduring Daryn's betrayal so painfully. There wasn't a day I didn't cry." But Pia lowered her head. She gulped in fear. There was no way she would go against Gayle. He was a senator and had powers beyond imagination. And he hadn't even tried his powers.

Maya looked at Azura who was mad as hell. 

Azura's body had tensed. Routine cleanup? Did that mean that pure illogical reasoning was the motivation to attack the neotides? To kill Dawn? And Brad was after all the killings? Then what about Gayle? He realized that because of Maya, so many things had gone wrong in his life. 

As if understanding what he thought, Maya said, "This is all a decoy, Azura. It's a trap. Can't you see?" But Azura didn't answer. A snarl escaped his mouth as if he was ready to shift and charge her. Maya's gaze turned to Jason. "You should tell them all that Dawn has done to you." She viewed the gathering and found that every eye was fixed on her. 

"Don't Jason," Azura warned him. He didn't want the neotides to look like idiots, like some toys played by pure bloods like Maya. 

Jason was holding Niall's hand. He turned his head to see her and she nodded. She wanted him to do the closure. That would have been her ultimate revenge. 

He took a deep breath and walked up to Maya. After patting her on her shoulders as if telling her that she did great, he addressed the crowd, "Dawn did a hostile takeover of my company The Neo Software. She went on to hack it and dug out every possible information only to use it against me. I didn't even know what was going on behind my back. By the time I realized, she threatened me with a lawsuit and got the papers signed forcibly." 

Dawn raised her eyebrows. Why was he talking like a buffoon? She crossed her hands across her chest. 

A smile came on Maya's face. There Dawn, now let's see what you can do.

Jason left Maya and walked up to Dawn. He stopped several feet away because of the intimidating presence of Daryn, Gayle and Neal. "Two years back, Daryn had taken over our gaming company The Jupiter Inc. forcibly. Once again it was a hostile takeover." He scoffed and looked at Daryn and Dawn standing together, holding hands. "Now I can see that birds of a feather flock together."