The Thorne Heiress Unveiling Shadow novel Chapter 94

Kaelen stood frozen for a moment, the weight of their judgment crashing down on him. He looked from Arthur's stony face to Lillian's heartbroken one, and finally, to Evelyn. He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but no words came.

He simply gave a single, stiff nod, turned, and walked out of the room. The heavy oak doors of the Thorne living room clicked shut behind him, the sound echoing like a gunshot.

The alliance was broken.

In the days that followed, the Thorne family turned inward, a fortress of grief and suspicion. The command center was shut down. The atmosphere in the grand house was thick with a heavy, oppressive silence that reminded Evelyn of her years with the Suttons.

Chase was a constant, protective shadow at her side. "I knew he was no good," he muttered for the tenth time as they sat in the garden. "Men like that, they use people. It's all they know how to do."

Her father, consumed by his own guilt, avoided the topic altogether. Her mother, however, sought her out.

"I know you had come to… care for him," Lillian said gently one afternoon, her eyes full of a sad, maternal wisdom. "But blood is blood, Evelyn. And his family's hands are covered in it. You made the right choice to protect us."

They all believed she had chosen them. That she had cut the final tie to the man who had brought such darkness to their door.

And Evelyn let them believe it.

A week after Kaelen's dismissal, an emergency meeting of the Thorne Group's board of directors was called. Evelyn, for the first time, took her seat at the head of the table. Her father sat to her right, a clear, public gesture of his support.

The mood in the room was tense. The news of the Blackwood scandal had shaken the market, and the close ties between their two companies now felt like a liability.

Evelyn waited until everyone was settled. She did not look at the papers in front of her. She looked at each board member, her gaze cool and steady.

"I have called this meeting to address the recent, and very public, allegations against the Blackwood Corporation," she began, her voice clear and ringing with a new, absolute authority.

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