The Platonic Trap novel Chapter 108

Celia pouted, pretending to be deeply upset.

Alistair felt that, undeniably, he was at fault. He had been so focused on avoiding her gaze that he completely forgot to take pictures.

"If it's important to you," Alistair offered his practical, deadpan solution, "I can have the university redo the entire graduation ceremony tomorrow."

When he made a mistake, Alistair was never stingy with his compensation.

Celia burst out laughing.

"I don't mean that!"

Laughing, she stepped backward until she was standing in front of one of the graduation backdrops. "I mean, as compensation, you have to take a few photos of me right here!"

Alistair decided this was a perfectly reasonable demand.

Nodding, he reopened his camera app and started taking photos.

It had to be said—the man was an alarmingly fast learner.

He immediately applied all of Celia's framing critiques into practice, capturing several stunning shots of her.

"These are gorgeous! Promise you'll send all of these to me when we get home?"

Celia asked with a bright smile as she flipped through the gallery.

He nodded, letting her review them.

After swiping past the last one, her smile faded slightly.

Noticing the shift in her mood, his tone was calm. "If you're not satisfied, I can retake them."

Celia tugged at the corner of her lips, looking up at him, her eyes shimmering. "Could we... take a picture together?"

As a high-ranking corporate and political figure, Alistair couldn't just have his photo taken casually.

His image could easily be weaponized by rivals to cause massive disruptions.

Because of this, he rarely appeared in the media. Finding a photo of him online was nearly impossible outside of a few exclusive financial magazines. He simply didn't do cameras.

The young woman looked down, hiding the tremble in the second half of her request. "I want to show my dad."

He looked down at her.

A long silence passed.

Finally, his lips parted, his voice cool and steady.

Making no effort to hide it, Alistair's expression remained neutral. "What did Franklin Forrester have to say?"

Ken delivered his report with absolute seriousness. "When he arrived at the auditorium, there was still a massive crowd. He slapped Talbot twice in front of everyone."

"The Forrester Group just leaked word that they're exiling Talbot abroad for a few months to... build his character."

Alistair gave a noncommittal hum. His finger lingered on the screen, his tone freezing over. "Sever all ties and contracts with the Forrester Group. Make sure the news goes public."

Ken felt a cold sweat break out on his scalp.

—Cutting all ties and going public with it? That was a corporate death sentence for the Forresters!

Just how exactly had Talbot Forrester managed to piss off the boss this badly?

"Understood, sir."

As Ken looked up, his eyes accidentally caught the screen of Alistair's phone.

His eyes went wide. He thought he was hallucinating!

"Sir, are... are those..."