REJECTED BY THE HEIR AFTER DIVORCE

Chapter Three – Ashes of the Past

The morning sun cut through the high windows of the Cole estate, flooding the marble halls with a golden glow. Adrian sat at the long table alone, a porcelain cup of coffee untouched before him.

Sleep had not come easily, his mind replayed Gerald’s final words over and over. The truth about why your parents died.

He had grown up with the story drilled into him: a car accident, tragic, senseless. But something in Gerald’s tone last night told him it was no accident at all.

Marcus entered, carrying a thick folder. “You should eat, sir,” he said simply, setting the folder down beside the coffee.

Adrian’s eyes flicked to it. “What is this?”

“Your induction,” Marcus replied. “A brief of the holdings you now control. But that” he tapped the folder “is also what your grandfather mentioned last night. The file your parents died for.”

Adrian’s breath stilled. His fingers itched as he pulled the folder closer. Inside were surveillance photos, coded reports, financial statements traced across continents.

And buried within, a grainy black-and-white picture. A man in a tailored suit, his hand shaking another’s under a banner of the Grant Corporation.

Adrian’s heart lurched. The name at the bottom of the report made his pulse thunder. Harold Grant, Elena’s father. Adrian looked up sharply. “Are you saying?”

Marcus’s expression hardened. “Yes. The Grants had a hand in it. Your parents’ ‘accident’ was no accident at all.”

The room tilted. Betrayal from Elena had gutted him, but this… this was a wound far deeper. The family who had mocked him, used him, treated him as nothing, had killed his parents?

A slow, icy fury coiled through Adrian’s veins. For years, he had endured their ridicule in silence. For years, he had been blind. No more.

Across the city, Elena Grant stretched lazily in silk sheets that weren’t hers. Damian, her lover, lounged beside her, scrolling through his phone with an infuriating smirk.

Elena traced a finger down his arm. “You saw his face last night. Pathetic. Adrian will crawl off into obscurity, and I’ll finally be free of that… weight.”

Damian chuckled, not looking up. “Careful, darling. You sound almost sentimental.”

“Sentimental?” Elena scoffed, rolling out of bed. She slipped into a robe, tying it with sharp movements. “The man was nothing. My family tolerated him because I insisted. But now…” Her lips curved. “Now, I get to live without that dead weight dragging me down.”

She didn’t notice the flicker in Damian’s eyes. The calculation. The faint edge of boredom. Elena poured herself a drink, oblivious. “Adrian will fade. He always does. That’s who he is.”

But Adrian Cole was not fading. Back in the Cole estate, Adrian stood at the balcony overlooking acres of manicured gardens. The folder still burned in his hands. His parents’ death. The Grants’ involvement. The betrayal of blood and love.

It was as though his entire life had been built on ashes, ashes that smoldered now, feeding a fire he could no longer ignore.

Marcus approached quietly. “Your grandfather expects you in the strategy room. The board will test you today.”

Adrian closed the folder with a snap, his eyes dark with resolve. “Let them.”