2026-01-05 16:59:25The grandfather froze, his face draining of color. He stared at Lila like he'd never seen her before. When he spoke, his voice was low and dangerous.
"What did you just say?"
Lila lifted her chin. "I said I will never marry him."
"You ungrateful child." The old man's voice rose. "Do you have any idea what you're saying? Being able to marry Young Master Walker is a blessing for our entire family. Master Donovan's disciple—do you understand what that means? And you stand here throwing it away like garbage?"
"I don't care who—"
"Enough!" The grandfather's shout echoed across the courtyard. "You will go inside. You will inform your parents. And you will show some respect. Now."
Lila's hands clenched into fists. For a moment, it looked like she might argue. Then she turned and stormed toward the house.
The grandfather watched her go, his jaw tight. Then he turned to Kai, forcing his expression into something apologetic.
"Young Master Walker, I—"
"It's fine." Kai's smile was strained. "Really."
It wasn't fine. Nothing about this was fine.
He'd come here to break off an engagement. Instead, he was standing in the courtyard of a woman who hated him, being welcomed as her future husband. The woman he'd slept with. The woman who'd threatened to destroy him.
The irony was so thick he could choke on it.
The grandfather studied Kai's face. His own expression shifted from apologetic to worried.
"Young Master Walker, if you... if you find my granddaughter unsuitable, I understand. I have other grandchildren. A younger granddaughter, perhaps, or—"
"No." The word came out before Kai could think. "The engagement stands. Lila is fine."
Why had he said that? He should be agreeing. Taking the out. Walking away.
But something in the old man's desperate expression stopped him. And beneath that, a strange sense of responsibility. He'd taken Lila's innocence, even if it was to save her life. Walking away now felt wrong.
The grandfather's relief was visible. “Thank you. Master Donovan once saved my life years ago. I've never forgotten that debt. When he approached me about this marriage, I saw it as fate—a chance to finally repay him. And now, meeting you myself, I see he chose well.” His expression grew earnest. “I'm getting old, Young Master Walker. One day, I'd like to entrust our family business to someone capable. Someone I can trust.”
"Grandfather!"
Lila's voice cut through the air. She emerged from the house, flanked by a middle-aged couple and an elderly woman with sharp eyes and an even sharper expression.
The elderly woman swept forward, her silk robes rustling. She didn't bow. She didn't smile.
"So you're the one," she said, looking Kai up and down with clear disdain.
The grandfather stepped forward. "Eleanor, this is—"
"I know who he is." The grandmother's voice was cold. "And I'm telling you now, no one is marrying my granddaughter off to some ordinary man."
"Eleanor—"
“Lila is destined to marry Daniel Cross!” The grandmother’s voice rang out.
The grandfather’s jaw tightened. “Eleanor—”
“The Cross family is one level above us in status,” she continued, stepping forward. “Do you not understand what that means for our position?”
“I understand perfectly well—”
“Then why are you throwing away this opportunity?” Her voice climbed higher. “Daniel’s father is close to Vincent Shaw himself. Vincent Shaw! Do you know how many families would kill for that connection?”
Lila’s mother moved closer, emboldened by the grandmother’s words. “Once Lila marries into that family, we’ll have access to—”
“Cooperation,” the grandmother finished. “Real connections. Opportunities we could never reach on our own.” She gestured dismissively at Kai. “Our family will rise. A bright future is right in front of us, and you want to throw it away for this… this nobody?”
“He is not a nobody,” the grandfather said through gritted teeth.
“Look at him!” The grandmother’s hand swept toward Kai. “Look at his clothes, his bearing. What could he possibly offer us that the Cross family cannot?”
Lila's parents stepped forward, their expressions nervous but determined.
"Father, please reconsider," Lila's father said. "The family's future depends on Lila's marriage. How can we be so casual about it?"
"Think of the opportunities," her mother added. "The Cross family could elevate us. Isn't that what we've always wanted?"
The grandfather's face went purple.
"SHUT UP!"
The courtyard went silent.
"I didn't want to say this in front of Young Master Walker," the grandfather said, his voice shaking with rage. "I didn't want to make us look like calculating opportunists. But your stupidity has forced my hand."
He pointed at Kai. "This man—THIS man right here, is the one who can take our family to the next level. Master Donovan's disciple. Do you understand what that means? The perfect son-in-law is standing in front of you, and you want to chase after a middleman like Daniel Cross? Utterly foolish!"
Lila's parents fell silent, exchanging uneasy glances.
But Lila stepped forward, her voice trembling. "Grandfather, you're being deceived. He's not who you think he is. He's just an ordinary man. I know him. He's—"
"Lila, be quiet—"
"He's lying to you!" Her voice rose. "Or you're lying to yourself. He can't possibly—"
The grandmother cut in, her voice sharp. "The boy is right in front of you, and you still believe this nonsense? Have you gone blind with age? How could this... this poor nobody lead our family anywhere? He's not even worthy of carrying Daniel's shoes—"
The slap echoed across the courtyard.
The grandmother stumbled, her hand flying to her cheek. She stared at her husband in shock.
The grandfather's hand was still raised, shaking with fury. When he spoke, his voice was deadly quiet.
"As long as I am the head of this family, anyone who opposes me again will be expelled on the spot." He turned to the grandmother, his eyes cold. "And you, Eleanor. Don't embarrass yourself by forcing a divorce at your age. The choice is yours."
No one spoke. No one moved.
The grandfather let the silence stretch, then turned to Kai. His expression shifted back to apologetic.
"Young Master Walker, I deeply apologize. Our family has no discipline. We've made a spectacle of ourselves in front of you." He bowed deeply. "But I assure you, we will welcome you with the utmost sincerity from this moment forward."
He straightened, his eyes bright with determination. "In fact, to show our commitment, I propose we settle this matter today. You and Lila can go to the registry office and register your marriage. Make it official. No more delays, no more objections."
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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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