2026-01-05 16:36:07The Hartley estate sat on the north side of Meridian City, surrounded by high walls and wrought iron gates. Vincent's car idled at the curb.
"Last chance," Vincent said from the driver's seat. "Let me come with you. The Hartleys are traditional, having someone of my status vouch for you would—"
"No." Kai opened the door. "I'm here to break off an engagement, not propose. The fewer people involved, the better."
Vincent frowned. "Break it off? Kai, the Hartley family's daughters are what half the men in Meridian City dream of. And you want to walk away?"
"Yes."
"At least think about it. Settle down before building your career. You need someone to take care of your life. A good wife—"
"Vincent." Kai's tone left no room for argument. "I'll handle this myself."
He stepped out and closed the door. Vincent watched him for a moment, then sighed and drove away.
Kai stood alone on the quiet street, staring at the iron gates.
He just hoped his fiancée wasn't Lila's sister. Sleeping with your sister-in-law wasn't something to be proud of. Maybe this mystery fiancée was a cousin. Or a distant relative. Anyone but—
"What are you doing here?"
Kai's blood turned to ice. He turned slowly.
Lila Hartley stood three feet away, shopping bags in hand, staring at him with clear suspicion.
Kai forced a smile that felt more like a grimace. Speak of the devil.
"You." Lila's eyes narrowed. "Did you follow me here?"
"No, I—"
"Don't lie to me." Her voice dropped to a dangerous whisper. "I told you what would happen if you came near me again. Are you here to cause trouble at my home?"
"It's not what you think—"
"Leave. Now." She pointed down the street. "Before I call the police."
Kai opened his mouth to explain, then closed it. What could he say? I'm here to see my fiancée? I came to ask your family for money? Either way, he'd sound like a scumbag.
They stood in silence, locked in a stalemate.
The iron gates behind them groaned open.
"Lila!" A white-haired old man stepped through, his face stern. "What are you doing arguing with someone at the entrance? We have an important guest arriving any moment. Show some dignity!"
Lila's grandfather was tall despite his age, with sharp eyes and the bearing of someone used to authority. He wore traditional robes and carried himself with old-world formality.
Then his gaze landed on Kai.
The old man froze. His eyes went wide. Then, to Lila's complete shock, he bowed.
"Young Master Walker! Forgive me—I didn't realize you'd already arrived." He straightened, his face breaking into a warm smile. "Please, come inside. Welcome to our home."
Lila stared. "Grandfather, what are you—"
"Lila, don't be rude." The old man's tone turned sharp. "Go inform your parents immediately. Tell them to prepare the main hall. We have an honored guest."
"But Grandfather, he's—"
"Now, Lila."
She didn't move, still staring at Kai like he'd grown a second head.
The old man sighed and turned to Kai with an apologetic smile. "Forgive my granddaughter's manners. She doesn't know who you are." He gestured toward the open gates. "Please, come in. We've been expecting you."
Kai hesitated. This was his chance to explain, to clarify the misunderstanding, to politely decline and leave.
But Lila's grandfather was already guiding him forward, one hand hovering respectfully near Kai's shoulder without quite touching.
"Master Donovan spoke so highly of you," the old man continued as they walked. "When he contacted us about the engagement, we were honored beyond words. To think our family would be connected to his prized disciple—"
Lila's gasp cut through the air. "Engagement?"
They'd reached the courtyard now, a beautifully landscaped space with a central fountain. The old man finally seemed to realize his mistake.
"Ah." He stopped, turning between Kai and Lila. "I haven't introduced you properly, have I?"
He pulled Lila forward, despite her resistance. She looked ready to bolt.
"Young Master Walker, this is my eldest granddaughter, Lila. She's intelligent, well-educated, and comes from a good family. Strong-willed, perhaps a bit headstrong at times, but she has a kind heart." His smile widened. "And she's your fiancée."
The words hung in the air like a bomb.
Lila's face went through several emotions—confusion, disbelief, understanding, then pure rage.
Her grandfather continued, oblivious. "Lila, this is Kai Walker, Master Donovan's disciple. Your future husband. Please exchange contact information. Your mother will want to begin planning—"
"No."
The word came out flat and absolute.
The old man blinked. "What?"
Lila stepped back, her hands clenched into fists. When she spoke, her voice shook with barely controlled fury.
"I will never marry him. I want absolutely nothing to do with him.”
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Chapter 48
The pillow barrier came down on a Tuesday.Neither of them announced it. Kai moved the pillows back to the headboard stack before Lila came out of the bathroom and when she emerged and saw the bed she looked at it for a moment and then got in on her side without comment. He turned off the lamp on his side. She turned off hers.The dark was the same dark as before. The distance was different.He was aware of her in the specific way you are aware of someone when the physical boundary that had been organizing that awareness is removed. The sound of her breathing. The particular way the mattress registered her weight and position. He lay on his back and looked at the ceiling and thought about the legal deadline and the evidence package Patricia was compiling and whether any of it would be sufficient and then made himself stop thinking about it because that was not a useful way to spend the night.He fell asleep eventually.He woke at two-seventeen by the clock on the nightstand, sitting u
Chapter 47
The conference room was on the third floor of a building that housed family court mediation services, which meant the walls were painted the particular shade of institutional beige that communicated neutrality and produced the opposite effect. Kai sat at the table with their lawyer, Patricia Chen, and looked at the beige walls and thought about how Richard had managed to make this happen in a week.The answer was that Richard had probably been preparing it for longer than a week and had filed when the moment suited him. The gala coverage had forced his hand. A positive morning in the papers was a shrinking window and Richard understood windows.The opposing lawyer was a man named Forsythe who had the specific manner of someone who had been paid to be unpleasant and had made peace with that. He arranged his documents on the table with the deliberateness of someone who wanted you to see how many there were.The judge overseeing the preliminary hearing was a woman named Caldwell, mid-six
Chapter 46
The morning papers arrived at seven and Vincent sent the digital links twenty minutes before that. Kai read them at the desk in Marcus's study, which had been cleaned and lit properly now that the generators were running permanently, and which he had been spending more time in than the master bedroom.The coverage was better than he had expected and he understood why immediately. The venue story had leaked before the gala, which meant the journalists who attended had arrived expecting a visible failure and found something else instead. Failure redeemed made a better story than success maintained. He understood this. He had given them the narrative they needed and they had used it.The Thorne Heir's Dramatic Return, one headline read. Another called the ruins venue audacious. A third ran a photograph of the entrance arch with the string lights visible through it and a caption about legacy reclaimed. Gerald Vance was quoted in one piece saying he found the evening impressive. Mrs. Black
Chapter 45
The first cars arrived at seven-thirty.Kai watched them from the entrance arch, the headlights moving up the drive through the cleared grounds, and thought about the last time vehicles had come up this road. Ten years ago they would have been fire trucks. He let the thought arrive and pass and straightened his jacket.The transformation held. That was the thing he hadn't been certain of until this moment, standing in it with other people present. In the daylight it had looked like ambition applied to wreckage. In the evening, with the string lights running through the open roof frames and along the standing walls and across the garden where the crews had cleared a decade of growth, it looked like something else. The blackened stone caught the light differently than new stone would have. The empty window frames became architecture. The collapsed east wing, carefully bordered and left as it was, looked intentional, a monument rather than a ruin.He heard a woman near the entrance say i
Chapter 44
The decision came at eleven-thirty at night, which was probably relevant to how it got made.Kai was sitting in Eleanor's study with a list of venues Vincent had compiled, each one annotated with capacity, availability, and the specific way it fell short of the Aldridge. A hotel ballroom that could manage the numbers but carried the aesthetic of a corporate conference. A private club that was technically available but whose membership list overlapped significantly with the people most likely to interpret the change as retreat. A rooftop space that was too small and too casual and would reframe the entire event in a way that served Richard's narrative rather than dismantling it.He set the list down and thought about the property Eleanor had returned to him.Lila was at the other end of the desk when he said it. She looked up from the catering contract she had been trying to salvage."The Thorne estate," he said.She looked at him for a moment. "Kai.""It's my property. It's large enou
Chapter 43
The rehearsal dinner was Lila's idea, framed as a practical necessity. Twelve guests, people who would be at the gala and who carried enough social weight that getting them wrong on the night would have consequences. A dry run, she called it. An opportunity to practice before the actual event.Kai understood the logic. He did not enjoy the three days leading up to it.Lila had constructed a system. Index cards, which she presented without irony, each one carrying a name, a face pulled from a social directory, a brief history of the relevant relationships, and the specific things that should not be said. She went through them with him at the desk in Eleanor's study each evening, running the stack like flashcards, asking questions, correcting errors, starting again.He was not good at it.The problem wasn't retention. He could retain information. The problem was that the information felt constructed, a scaffolding of social facts assembled to simulate familiarity that didn't exist, and
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