Adrian POV
The press room hadn't changed. It has the same too-bright lights, wall of cameras, and the tension of a hundred people waiting to see if you'd say something they could turn into a headline.
"You don't have to do this today," Kelly said, beside me in the wings. "We could push it a week. Give you more time."
"I've had five weeks I didn't ask for," I said. "I'm not spending a sixth hiding from a room full of reporters."
"That's not the same as being ready."
"No," I agreed. "But it's the same as not letting them decide when I'm allowed to come back."
She studied me for a moment, the particular assessing look she'd perfected over months of running interference for a company neither of us had asked to inherit under these circumstances. "Okay. I'm right beside you the whole time."
"I know."
We stepped out together, and the room erupted into the low roar of shutter clicks and shouted questions that always accompanied moments like this.
