I Changed My Name and My Fate Chapter 09

I Changed My Name and My Fate Chapter 09

After security dragged the Thornes out of the gala, they became the punchline of every conversation in town

Thorne Enterprises had its accounts frozen. Employees swarmed headquarters, demanding back pay.

Creditors showed up every morning to throw paint at their front door. Chloe’s dad was buried under investigations. Chloe’s mom couldn’t stop crying. And Julian spent every waking hour trying to find me

Chloe lasted barely any time after being cut off. Then she vanished – and took the Thornes’ last emergency

fund with her.

When Chloe’s mom found out, she nearly lost her mind. Harper sent me a video.

Some dingy rental apartment on the edge of town. Chloe’s mom had Chloe by a fistful of hair. “How could you take the emergency money?”

Chloe clawed at her mother’s face. “Emergency money? Your lives aren’t worth anything anyway. If you people hadn’t been so pathetic, I wouldn’t be in this mess.”

Chloe’s mom sobbed and called her an ungrateful snake. “Guess who raised me.”

“When I said Eleanor pushed me, you didn’t ask a single question. I said she stole from me, and you slapped

her right then and there.”

“I called her evil, and you threw her out in the rain. So don’t stand there playing the victim now.”

Chloe’s mom had nothing left to say.

By the time Julian got there, they were clawing at each other on the floor.

He tried to pull them apart. Chloe grabbed a shard of broken glass and slashed his wrist. The hand he used

for the piano.

From what I heard, the nerve damage was permanent. He’d never play the same way again.

Julian sat in the hospital corridor for hours on end, staring at his bandaged hand without saying a word.

Chloe tried to run off with the cash. But a lifetime of living beyond her means had left her buried in debt.

The loan sharks caught up to her and dragged her to an underground gambling den to work off what she

owed. She thought her face could still buy her way out.

She lost everything in one sitting. The debt tripled.

Chloe’s dad ended up even worse.

Evidence of tax fraud and corporate crimes kept piling up. The day they arrested him, cameras were

everywhere.

The man who used to walk into boardrooms in tailored suits couldn’t lift his head as they put him in the car.

Thorne Enterprises filed for bankruptcy.

I scrolled through the last few photos my assistant had sent and deleted them.

Toby came running over and wrapped himself around my legs. “Mommy, whatcha looking at?” I closed the

tablet.

“Just cleaning up some junk.” He nodded, dead serious.

“Make sure you get all of it.” Alexander’s arms wrapped around me from behind.

“Already done.” I settled back against his chest and looked out at the greenhouse through the window.

The new bellflowers had bloomed. Toby watered them constantly with a dedication that bordered on drowning them.

The gardener said one more round and they’d be swimming. I couldn’t help smiling.

Alexander rested his chin on my head. “Are you happy?” I thought about it.

“It’s not happiness, exactly. It’s that I finally don’t have to keep looking over my shoulder.”

He kissed the top of my head. “Then look forward.”

I hummed softly against him. Then my phone lit up.

It was an unfamiliar number.

[Eleanor, I’m outside the flower shop.]

[This time, I’m giving you my life.]

It was signed Julian. Alexander took the phone from me. His expression went dark.

“Let’s go. Let’s see what he’s trying to pull this time.”