Chapter 69

The airport was chaos. Sirens, shouting, camera flashes—everything swirling together into a frantic blur that Beth barely registered. She couldn't feel anything past Cassie's body clinging to her, her arm screaming in pain, and Changbin's voice in her ear telling her over and over, I've got you.

But the rest of the world?

The rest of the world saw everything.

By sunrise, it was everywhere.

📱 REEL — 1.8M likes

🎥: Security cam footage / gate terminal cell phone angle 🎧: S-Class by Stray Kids (fan edit overlay)

👤 @skztruthupdates: "WHAT JUST HAPPENED AT INCHEON AIRPORT???" 🎬 A man (later confirmed as Henry Anders) is seen grabbing a woman by the hair and tackling her to the ground. Security is delayed.

⚠️ TW: Violence, attempted strangulation

[🎥 Clip shows Beth breaking free—face bloody, shoulder slung, visibly panicked—only for the man to lunge at her and pin her. Within seconds, another figure—identified by fans as Seo Changbin of Stray Kids—barrels into frame, launching himself at the man and knocking him off her. Screams. Cassie's voice can be heard: "Mommy!" then "Daddy!" before she runs into Changbin's arms.]

👤@lovelixmo: WAIT WAS THAT CHANGBIN??????

👤@stayjournal: Beth Anders from Golden Stag just DECKED that man. You can hear the punch.

👤@parkchannie: And did y'all hear the little girl call Changbin daddy????

📰 ARTICLE — The Korea Herald

Title: "Golden Stag Executive Prevents Kidnapping at Incheon — With Help From Stray Kids' Seo Changbin"

By: Park Ji-Yeon

In an unprecedented public incident at Incheon International Airport early this morning, former U.S. Army veteran and Golden Stag co-founder Beth Anders successfully stopped the abduction of her daughter, Cassidy Anders, in an altercation that turned violent.

Footage circulating online shows Anders confronting the suspected kidnapper—identified as Henry Anders, her ex-husband and the child's biological father—at Gate 17. Witnesses report the suspect attempting to board a flight to Los Angeles using falsified documents and the child's stolen passport.

Seo Changbin, member of internationally renowned group Stray Kids, intervened during the attack, physically removing the suspect from Anders and assisting in detainment.

Authorities have confirmed that Mr. Anders was arrested at the scene and now faces charges including international kidnapping, attempted murder, and multiple violations of South Korean custody law.

In a moment that has gone viral across platforms, Cassidy Anders—age five—was filmed calling Seo "Daddy" after the rescue. Sources close to Golden Stag have confirmed that Beth Anders and Seo Changbin are in a romantic relationship.

📱 REEL — 4.2M likes

🎥: Close-up cell phone angle, slightly shaky, clear audio

👤 @staycitytv: "You guys... this child just called Changbin Appa after watching him save her mom. I'm crying."

[🎥: Clip shows Beth on the ground gasping, clutching Cassie. Security is shouting. Changbin appears beside them, arms reaching—Cassie turns, sees him, and screams "Daddy!" as she launches into his arms. Changbin visibly crumbles, catching her and whispering, "I've got you, baby."]

👤 @cokewithbangchan: Everyone shut up I'm sobbing in public

👤 @turtlecassie: That man is not her father by blood but he is HER DAD now and I will not hear otherwise

👤 @dimpledbinnie: No one who saw this will ever call it "just PR" again

📰 ARTICLE — Soompi

Headline: "Stray Kids' Changbin Involved in Real-Life Heroism — Relationship With Beth Anders Confirmed"

In the wake of the harrowing attempted abduction and assault of Cassidy Anders, Stray Kids' Seo Changbin is being widely praised for his role in neutralizing the threat and protecting both the child and her mother.

The footage, widely circulated across platforms including TikTok, Instagram, and X, shows Changbin tackling the suspect and remaining at Anders' side through the aftermath. Fans were quick to identify his emotional reaction and protectiveness over Cassidy, especially after she called him "Daddy" in front of officers.

Sources close to the family confirmed that Changbin and Anders have been in a private relationship for some time. Though not biologically related to the child, Changbin has been a significant presence in Cassidy's life and was present during her emergency recovery after the incident.

📱 REEL — 6.5M likes

🎥: Fan edit with slow zoom, black-and-white filter, instrumental of "DOMINO"

👤 @fandomcore: "Beth punching her abuser. Changbin tackling him. Cassie calling him daddy. Tell me again what a real man looks like."

[🎥 Clip order:

Henry strangling Beth

Changbin flying into frame to tackle him

Cassie running to them

Beth punching Henry unconscious

Security dragging him off as Cassie curls into Changbin's chest.]

👤 @savestrangerstays: I didn't even know I shipped them until right now I'm crying at 8 AM

👤 @eightmakes1family: I don't care what their PR team says this is the realest thing I've ever seen

📱 REEL — 9.2M likes

🎥: Dashcam footage compilation 🎧: Instrumental overlay of "FNF" (Slowed + Reverb)

👤 @staysleuthnation: "Wait. WAIT. Is that Changbin?? And that's BETH ANDERS??"

[🎥 Clip 1: Grainy dashcam footage from a passing vehicle, timestamped 8:17 p.m. the night before. A black motorcycle slides out at the base of a freeway offramp. A woman's body slams sideways across the pavement—helmeted, but visibly injured. Changbin jumps up immediately, shouting, skidding to her side. He rips off his own helmet, then hers, cradling her head against his chest.]

👤@angellinefelix: NO ONE KNEW HE EVEN RODE A MOTORCYCLE????

[🎥 Clip 2: New angle. Someone filming from a stopped car. Beth is clearly dazed, cradling her arm as Changbin yells for help. Traffic is backed up. A black SUV pulls up fast. The door flies open. Out steps Alex Taylor. Her hair is in a braid, face pale, but calm—medical kit already in hand. Bang Chan follows close behind.]

👤 @goldenstagmoments: Is anyone gonna talk about Alex popping her friend's shoulder back into place in the middle of a freeway??

👤 @stayinthewild: No, but seriously, who ARE these women???

👤 @binnielinesonly: SOMEONE TELL ME HOW BETH AND CHANGBIN WENT FROM ZERO INTERACTION TO BEING IN LOVE AND NEARLY DYING TOGETHER

📰 ARTICLE — Dispatch Korea

Title: Seo Changbin's Hidden Relationship Revealed Following Midnight Motorcycle Crash and Airport Rescue

Byline: Dispatch Investigative Team

Stray Kids' Seo Changbin is at the center of a whirlwind of revelations following a shocking 24-hour period in which:

He was involved in a motorcycle crash on the Banpo Expressway

His previously unknown romantic partner, Golden Stag's Beth Anders, was seriously injured in the accident

He tackled and helped subdue her ex-husband during an attempted abduction and assault at Incheon International Airport

Her five-year-old daughter, Cassidy Anders, referred to him publicly as "Daddy"

Footage of the crash, circulated through both dashcams and social media, shows Seo cradling Anders protectively, calling for help, and later supporting her as her business partner Alex Taylor (also known to be engaged to Bang Chan) relocates Anders' dislocated shoulder on-site. Medical reports confirm Anders was released later that evening from the ER with minor injuries—only to discover her daughter had been taken during their absence.

📱 TIKTOK — 12.4M views

🎥: Multi-angle edit 🎧: "Hall of Fame" – slowed orchestral remix

👤 @cassiesmomfanacc "So, in less than 12 hours, this man:

Took Beth on a date

Got into a crash protecting her

Held her while she screamed in pain

Found out her daughter was missing

Helped her fight through a panic attack

Helped her track down her kidnapper

Tackled that man to the ground

Got called Daddy by a five-year-old girl not even his

Watched the woman he loves nearly die

Said 'I love you' in front of the entire world

I'm not okay."

[🎥 Clips layered together:

Helmet removal, crash aftermath

Airport sprint footage

Beth kissing him post-rescue

Cassie whispering "Daddy" with her head buried in his neck

Final shot of all three huddled together, police lights flashing red behind them]

👤@stayafterdark: So we all just missed this entire love story happening in the background?

👤 @felixstolemyheart: I thought this was PR but the way Changbin looked at her after Cassie called him Daddy??? Nah. That man means it.

📰 ARTICLE — The Guardian Asia (Special Coverage)

Title: A Bruised Shoulder, a Bloody Lip, and a Love Story That Took Us by Storm

By: Park Eun-hae

What started as whispers on social media became a cascade of public evidence: Seo Changbin is not just the rapper, producer, and global star we thought we knew—he's now being recognized as a protector, a partner, and a father figure.

Beth Anders, one of the co-founders of Golden Stag Security, has long been a private figure in the Korean entertainment industry—respected for her work with Stray Kids and her military background, but rarely in the spotlight. That changed overnight.

The footage is clear. It shows Seo removing her motorcycle helmet with shaking hands. Holding her face in the glow of headlights. The way she clutched his arm when her shoulder was relocated. The way she broke apart in the airport terminal. The ferocity in his body when he tackled the man who hurt her. The way her child ran into his arms without hesitation.

This is not PR.

This is survival.

This is family.

And STAY, it seems, is learning that love stories don't always begin with fanservice or red carpet reveals. Sometimes they begin in blood and rain, in whispered reassurances and a child's voice calling Daddy in the middle of a terminal.

The sunlight was brutal.

Even behind the thick, tinted panes of Alex's penthouse—those massive, luxury-grade windows designed to block everything but the skyline itself—it still crept in. A dull, gray haze filtered through the gauzy curtains, softened by the June humidity, but it didn't matter. The light found her anyway. It pressed against her temples like a warning, like a migraine waiting to hatch beneath the surface of her skull. She could feel it building behind her eyes, thudding low and mean, as if the world had been holding its breath right alongside her and was finally, cruelly, exhaling.

She didn't move from where she stood—barefoot on the cool, polished wood, her toes curling slightly against the grain. Cassie was slung onto her left hip like a barnacle, warm and solid and still far too light for five years old. Beth's right arm, bruised and cradled in a navy sling, hung motionless against her ribs. Every muscle in her body ached. Her lips were split from the inside where her teeth had bitten down during the fight, a dull sting blooming every time she blinked too hard. Her neck throbbed where Henry had wrapped his hands around her throat. And her shoulder—it pulsed in time with her heartbeat, like it wanted to remind her she was still here, still alive, still recovering.

None of it mattered.

Not compared to what was playing on the TV.

The screen dominated the living room wall, a clean rectangle of sharp, unforgiving light. Beth's gaze locked on it—unblinking, unwilling, unable to look away. The anchor's voice cut through the quiet like a scalpel, crisp and detached in the way only polished broadcast professionals could manage when reporting trauma like gossip.

"This is the now-viral footage from Gate 17 at Incheon International Airport," the woman was saying, her tone grim but controlled, "where Seo Changbin of Stray Kids and Golden Stag executive Beth Anders were caught in a violent confrontation with Anders' ex-husband. The footage you're seeing now has been confirmed by multiple sources—"

Beth flinched.

A new clip was rolling.

A different angle now—shaky, zoomed in, someone's phone balanced just long enough to catch the moment her fist connected. It looped in slow motion. Again. Again. Her arm snapped forward like a slingshot, her entire body pivoting with the momentum of the blow. Henry's face jerked back. His mouth opened. Blood sprayed. The screen cut to black for a beat, then opened again on security footage from above—her body lunging, his weight crashing down, Cassie's scream echoing faintly from some invisible corner of the terminal.

"—where Anders can be seen striking the man who had reportedly abducted her five-year-old daughter. Police confirm that Anders' ex-husband has been charged with international custodial interference, felony assault, and attempted homicide..."

The volume dropped suddenly, and Beth blinked, breath still caught somewhere in the back of her throat.

Alex had the remote in her lap. One leg was propped lazily on the coffee table, the other curled over Chan's thigh. She looked composed. Effortlessly so. Her expression was neutral, even a little bored, like she'd been expecting this exact footage, this exact phrasing, this exact twist of the knife. She didn't glance over.

"Deep breaths," she murmured, still focused on the screen. "You're spiraling."

Beth didn't breathe.

She couldn't.

The knot that had been growing low in her gut all morning tightened another fraction, sharp enough now to make her sway slightly under its weight. It had started around five a.m.—when the first notifications pinged in. By six, her phone was vibrating nonstop. Tags, texts, voice memos from reporters pretending to be family, her name ballooning into headlines she hadn't written, into stories she hadn't told. She had opened Instagram only to be greeted by her own face—bloodied, wide-eyed, mid-scream—blown up and edited under a sparkly filter that read "She's Mother."

It wasn't the coverage that undid her.

It was the man standing behind her.

Not just a man.

Changbin.

Seo fucking Changbin.

Beth didn't turn to look at him, but she could feel him there. His presence pressed into her back like a weighted blanket, solid and steady and far too close to the epicenter of her panic. Not that he was doing anything wrong. He hadn't moved, hadn't spoken. But she could feel the weight of his gaze on her shoulder, could hear the breath he wasn't letting out. He hadn't left since the airport. Hadn't stepped more than a few feet away from her since they'd gotten Cassie back. And still, somehow, the knowledge that he was standing behind her—standing with her—made her stomach twist even tighter.

Cassie shifted slightly in her arms. Not to get down. Not to speak. Just a small movement, her face burrowing deeper into the crook of Beth's neck like a kitten seeking warmth. Beth adjusted automatically, the motion jerking a dull ache through her spine. Her shoulder pulled tight. Her ribs throbbed from the impact of Henry's weight slamming her down.

Her baby let out a sleepy sigh and refocused on the cartoon playing beside Alex's coffee mug, the tablet propped up against a candlestick like it belonged there.

"She doesn't even know," Beth whispered, voice hoarse and cracking as it slipped out.

Her words hung there, suspended in the space between panic and grief.

"She has no idea what she just did. What this means."

Chan looked up from where he was fiddling with the hem of Alex's hoodie sleeve, eyebrows soft and mouth tugging toward sympathetic. "She didn't do anything wrong, Beth."

"She called him Daddy."

Beth's voice cracked on the word, even though she tried to keep it even. It came out quiet, brittle, as if it had splintered on the way up from her chest. She turned toward the couch, the words still echoing in her throat like a bell that wouldn't stop ringing.

"In front of cameras," she said, her breath catching. "In front of half the fucking airport."

The words hung there, too loud in the quiet of the penthouse. Behind her, the city buzzed faintly through the windows, but inside the room it was still—thick with unspoken fear and the sharp scent of coffee cooling on the table.

From behind her, Changbin spoke, his voice low and steady. "She was scared."

Beth turned toward him before she even thought to. Her heart clenched at the sight of him—still damp from the shower, dark curls flattened slightly, a white T-shirt clinging to his chest like it had been tugged on too fast. He looked so heartbreakingly real in that moment. Tired. Handsome. Quietly unraveling.

He was gripping the edge of the kitchen counter like it was the only thing keeping him grounded.

"I know she was scared," Beth said, the words tumbling out faster now, raw and unfiltered. "I know. And I'm not mad at her. I'm not—God, I'm not mad at her."

She took a shaky breath, her chest tightening around the truth.

"I'm mad that now everyone knows."

She could hear it in her own voice—the panic hidden just beneath the anger, the shame that wasn't hers to carry but had found a home in her anyway. She wasn't upset about Cassie's choice. Not even a little. She was upset about what the world would do with it.

Alex shifted on the couch, straightening just slightly. Her eyes sharpened the way they always did when Beth spiraled too close to the edge.

"Everyone knowing isn't the problem," Alex said, voice calm but pointed. "The problem is that you nearly died, and now you're punishing yourself for surviving too visibly."

Beth opened her mouth to argue.

No words came out.

Her jaw clicked shut again.

Cassie stirred gently in her arms, murmuring something sleep-soft and tangled. Beth bent and pressed a kiss to her daughter's temple, then lowered her carefully to the floor, her good hand guiding her down onto the plush rug beside the couch. Cassie didn't fuss. She just blinked once, saw the tablet still open on the coffee table, and mumbled something about fish crackers before padding off toward the kitchen like she'd lived here her whole life.

Beth didn't follow her.

Didn't sit.

She couldn't.

Her body was too full of motion, of fear, of adrenaline that hadn't finished burning out. So she moved—slow, short steps across the width of the living room. One pass, two. Her sling brushed against her ribs every time she pivoted. Her shoulder throbbed in time with her pulse.

"This changes everything," she muttered, half to herself, half to the echo of what ifs ricocheting through her skull. "It changes the custody ruling. The press. His family. My clients. God—Golden Stag. What if someone tries to use this against me? What if people start digging into—"

"They've already started," Chan said quietly from his place on the couch.

His voice was calm. Not unkind. Just factual.

Beth froze mid-step and turned, her eyes flashing. "That doesn't help, Chan."

"No," he agreed, with a slow shake of his head. "But it means the only way out of it is through it."

She hated how right he was.

Before she could speak again, movement in her periphery pulled her attention.

Changbin had left the kitchen.

He was walking toward her now—slow, deliberate, like he knew how close she was to bolting. His hands were open at his sides, not reaching, not demanding. Just there. Present. Waiting.

Beth stood still.

Her chest rose and fell in tight, shallow pulls. Her fingers curled reflexively against the fabric of her sling.

When he reached her, he didn't touch her.

He just looked at her—eyes dark and soft and devastating—and asked, "Are you ashamed?"

The question hit her like a sucker punch. Fast. Sharp. Unexpected.

She blinked, stunned by how fast her answer came.

"No," she said, the word fierce and immediate. "No. Of course not. I—God, no."

It wasn't shame. It was fear. Of what people would say. Of what they'd turn this into. Of what they'd try to take from her.

Changbin's voice dropped, even softer now. "Then let them see."

Beth's throat tightened.

"Let them see what a real father does," he said. "What a real partner looks like."

His gaze didn't waver.

"You think I care if the world knows you're mine?"

Beth's heart stuttered. Her breath hitched.

He stepped closer—just enough to tilt his forehead toward hers, not quite touching, but close enough for the air between them to shift. His words felt like a balm and a vow, spoken directly into the storm still raging inside her.

"Because I don't," he whispered. "I want them to know."

Beth's legs gave out before she realized they would. Her knees bent and she sank down slowly onto the arm of the couch, her slinged arm twitching against her chest. Her breath was coming faster again, too quick, too high.

Her breath was coming faster again, too quick, too high. The world tilted slightly at the edges, the echo of adrenaline still humming in her bloodstream like a distant war drum that wouldn't stop.

Alex reached out without a word and placed two fingers against the inside of Beth's wrist, just above where the sling met her skin. Not grabbing—just there. Just present.

"Breathe, B," she said softly. "Don't let them take your breath."

Beth tried. Inhale, hold, exhale—but her chest still felt like it was caving in. Her body wasn't finished panicking, no matter how many times her brain reminded it that Cassie was safe, that Henry was behind bars, that it was over.

But it wasn't over.

Not really.

It was public.

She turned her head to look at the TV again—and winced.

The screen was now showing footage from earlier in the night. Grainy, shaky cell phone video taken from across a rain-slick freeway. Headlights flashing. People yelling. The bike, crashed and smoking in the distance. And there—Changbin crouched in the wreckage, pulling Beth's helmet off with shaking hands. His lips moved fast, panicked. Her face turned toward him, bloody and dazed. The video zoomed just in time to catch Alex and Chan sprinting into frame, Alex yanking her coat off as she fell to her knees beside Beth, already bracing her shoulder to reset it. Her mouth moved fast and precise. Her hands didn't hesitate.

And then the screen cut to a composite of headlines:

"Seo Changbin of Stray Kids Involved in Motorcycle Crash Hours Before Airport Incident"

"Golden Stag Co-Founder Beth Anders Hospitalized After Attempted Abduction"

"Five-Year-Old Calls Seo Changbin 'Daddy' After Dramatic Rescue"

"STRAY KIDS SCANDAL? Or Found Family in Real Time?"

Beth groaned and dropped her head into her hand.

Alex clicked the TV off.

Cassie, now curled into the crook of Changbin's side on the floor, looked up and blinked. "Mommy?"

Beth forced a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Yeah, baby?"

"You need a juice too?"

Beth almost laughed. It came out strangled.

Cassie patted the carpet and announced, "I'll share mine."

The silence that followed was soft and uneven. It hurt. It healed. Beth glanced up again at Changbin. He was watching her like she was the only thing in the world that mattered. Not his career. Not the headlines. Not the chaos. Just her.

"Do you understand what this means?" she whispered. "You're going to get hate. Your fans are going to say awful things. People are going to look at me and see baggage, Changbin."

He leaned forward. One hand found her thigh, resting just above her knee.

"I don't care if the whole world sees you as baggage," he said quietly. "I see you as home."

Beth's throat clenched.

She looked over at Alex, who had gone still. Even Chan looked affected, his expression folding into something quiet and reverent as he reached for his wife's hand.

Cassie climbed into Beth's lap like it was nothing. Like the storm hadn't touched her at all.

Beth kissed the top of her head.

Then she looked back at the people in the room—the people who'd held her steady while her world burned.

"Alex, you did this, when your relationship with Chan came out? How did you do this? This part?"

Alex didn't answer right away.

She just sat there, her elbow balanced on the arm of the couch, fingertips curled against her mouth like she was chewing the inside of her cheek. Her eyes were distant. Focused somewhere Beth couldn't quite reach—like she'd stepped back in time. Maybe she had.

Beth didn't rush her. The silence stretched between them like fabric pulled tight—fragile, but not breaking.

Finally, Alex exhaled.

"You mean the part where every headline had my name next to his like I was a scandal waiting to happen?" she said softly. "The part where they found my military record and my medical history and every photo I'd ever been tagged in, just to try and make a case for why I didn't belong next to him?"

Beth swallowed hard. Her fingers curled into the fabric of Cassie's pajama top.

"Yeah," she whispered. "That part."

Alex nodded once, slowly. "You survive it by remembering that the people writing those articles don't know you. Not really. They don't know what you've carried, what you've rebuilt, what it took to make a life again. They don't know that you were the one holding Cassie when she was crying. Or that it was your name she screamed in the airport. They don't see the mornings. The bath times. The storybooks. The bruises on your shoulder. They see the headline. But he—" She tilted her chin toward Changbin. "He sees you."

Beth looked at him again.

And this time, she didn't look away.

"You'll lose privacy," Alex went on. "You'll lose comfort. You'll lose the ability to exist in a space without being observed. But you won't lose us. You won't lose your family. You won't lose the love."

"Most of the hate dies down," Chan added gently. "Eventually. And the people who don't get it? They're not worth keeping anyway."

Beth stared down at her hands.

Her knuckles were still scraped. Her right shoulder throbbed with every breath. But her daughter was safe. Her partner was here. Her best friend was solid as iron beside her. And she wasn't running anymore.

Cassie twisted around and whispered, "Can we stay here with Uncle Chan and Auntie Alex forever?"

Beth blinked rapidly.

Before she could speak, Changbin leaned forward and kissed the top of Cassie's head.

"We can stay as long as Mommy wants," he said. "And wherever we go after that, I'm not going anywhere."

Cassie nodded like that settled everything.

Beth finally let herself sag into the couch, her head tipping back, tears cooling on her cheeks.

"I want to raise her somewhere people see her as wanted," she said quietly. "Not as something stolen. Or claimed. Or fought over. Just—loved."

Alex slid closer and linked their fingers.

"She already is," she whispered.

The words sat there for a long moment.

She already is.

Beth didn't speak. She couldn't. Her throat was a thick knot of grief and release, of adrenaline comedown and the impossible relief of a child asleep in her lap.

Cassie's breathing had softened. Her body was limp now, her lashes fluttering against Beth's collarbone. The little girl had spent the last twenty-four hours being lied to, dragged through an airport, nearly smuggled out of the country by a man who shared her blood but not her love. And yet now, she slept like none of it had left a mark.

Beth didn't know how to make sense of that.

Didn't know how to breathe in the silence that followed.

"I should've stopped him sooner," she whispered, not even realizing she'd spoken aloud until the room shifted.

Alex's hand tightened instantly in hers. "You did. You stopped him now. That's what matters."

Beth shook her head. "I should've seen it coming. The text, the timing, the stupid door—God, I let him in—"

"You didn't let him anywhere, B," Chan said firmly. "He broke in. And you stopped him with your bare hands."

"She's right here," Changbin added, his voice low, steady. "That's what you did. That's what everyone saw."

Beth looked down at her daughter, so small and solid in her lap. Her little fists curled like seashells. One hand still clutching the tail of Gomi the turtle. The same backpack Henry had tried to take her with. It was sitting in the corner now, the pink and blue stained with mud, one of the sea creature charms missing.

The image of it dangling from his hand would never leave her.

She cleared her throat. Swallowed the burn.

"I didn't think I'd survive this," she said. Her voice was thin. "Not the crash. Not the fight. Not... any of it. And now there are videos of me screaming. Crying. Punching. Bleeding. My daughter crying. There are strangers dissecting our lives in real-time. And somehow, I'm supposed to show up tomorrow like nothing happened?"

"No," Alex said. "You're supposed to show up like it did happen—and you survived it anyway."

Beth's gaze lifted slowly to meet hers.

"You're a founder of Golden Stag," Alex went on. "A veteran. A mother. A survivor. If the media wants to spin that into something unworthy? Let them try. Because we're going to rewrite the story for them."

Beth blinked. "What does that mean?"

"It means we control the narrative," Chan answered. "We do the live. With all of us. You, Changbin, Alex, me. We talk about what happened—what really happened. And we show people that this wasn't a scandal. It was a rescue. It was a reckoning."

"And it was love," Changbin added. "If they can't see that, it's on them. Not you."

Beth looked between them.

The weight of it was enormous. The exposure. The vulnerability. But for the first time, she didn't feel alone under the microscope.

She was surrounded by people who weren't going to let her drown.

Cassie shifted against her, sighing in her sleep. Beth kissed the top of her head and whispered, "Okay."

Alex leaned forward. "Okay?"

Beth nodded. "We do the live. We tell the truth. All of it."

Alex's expression didn't soften so much as it sharpened—like Beth's answer had lit a fuse somewhere behind her eyes. She sat up straighter. "Then we do it right. No PR spin, no JYPE-ghostwritten statements. Our words. Our timing. Our platform."

Chan was already pulling out his phone. "I'll call the team. We'll give the press just enough to keep them from scrambling for scraps. But the live is ours."

Beth blinked. "When?"

"Tonight," Alex said.

Beth looked up, startled. "Tonight?"

"Don't give them time to build their own story," she said. "We get ahead of it now, while people still care more about the truth than the drama. Before it becomes fanwars and blurred footage and strangers debating if your kid was crying because of you."

Beth flinched. She hadn't even thought that far. She was still stuck in the parking garage. The ER. The airport. Her knuckles split and Changbin yelling and the crowd around them filming instead of helping. She hadn't had time to picture the online forums. The comments. The YouTube thumbnails. But of course Alex had.

"Okay," she said again, quieter now.

"Okay," Changbin echoed.

Cassie stirred in her lap, then sat up blinking, hair sticking to her cheek. She looked around the room blearily, then settled her gaze on Changbin.

"Daddy?" she said sleepily, reaching for him with both hands.

Beth felt her throat close, a soft, shattered ache cracking down her chest.

Changbin didn't hesitate. He crossed the rug in two strides and scooped Cassie gently into his arms, mindful of Beth's sling as he leaned in to kiss her temple. "I'm here, baby. I'm not going anywhere."

Cassie buried her face in his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his neck.

The sight of it—just them, so natural and whole—made something inside Beth finally exhale. A quiet letting go of all the what-ifs and spiraling questions. Her daughter had nearly been stolen. Her privacy had been stripped. Her pain had been made public.