The Wedding Dress Fitting

Chapter 2 The Departure

The apartment I kept in my own name was a fifteen-minute drive away. I had bought it years ago and never told Julian why. It was small enough to overlook and useful enough to hold the things I could never leave in a Thorne account or a Vance house.

I packed the clothes stored there, my personal files, and the laptop that held the source code behind Julian's company. Years of handling corporate emergencies had taught me to separate what mattered from what could be replaced. Everything fit into one suitcase and a laptop bag.

As I pulled the zipper closed, my adoptive brother Liam blocked the bedroom doorway. His face was red, and he was breathing hard.

“Where do you think you're going?” He looked from the suitcase to the laptop. “Mom and Dad gave you a home, and you're walking out over a stupid dress. You're an ungrateful b***h, Clara.”

I picked up the suitcase. “Move.”

He caught my upper arm and dug his fingers in. “You're staying, and that computer belongs here. Everything you have came from this family.”

I let the suitcase drop and opened a file on my phone.

“Then let's settle the accounts.”

The screen showed a ledger of offshore transfers. Liam's name appeared beside each one, along with dates, routing numbers, and the trust account he had used.

“Your Cayman account received over three hundred thousand dollars from the Vance family trust over the last two years. I personally guaranteed that money.” I held the phone closer. “Do you want me to ask the SEC who owns it now?”

His fingers loosened around my arm.

“You wouldn't.”

“Try me.”

I pulled free, picked up my luggage, and walked around him. Red marks remained on my arm. Liam stayed in the doorway with his eyes fixed on the ledger, making no move to grab me again.

Outside, I put the suitcase on the curb. I had an address fifteen minutes away, yet the family home behind me was gone for good.

I made my second call of the night as the car I had ordered turned onto the street.

“Alexander.”

“Clara. I've been waiting for your call.”

Alexander Sterling had offered me a partnership twice. He had recognized my work even when every public document credited Julian. Both times, I had chosen the engagement and the company I thought we shared.

“I'm in. I'll take the partnership.”

“My jet will be on the tarmac at 6 a.m. A car will reach you in five minutes and take you to a suite for the night.” Papers shifted at his end of the call. “Welcome to Sterling Capital, Clara.”

The car stopped in front of me before we hung up.

### Julian's POV

I took Mia to dinner to make up for the scene at the house. The restaurant was private and expensive, with champagne flutes thin enough to chime whenever a waiter set one down. Nobody stared at her swollen eyes.

She dabbed them with a napkin. “I'm sorry about Clara. I never should have touched her dress.”

“Forget it.” I covered her hand with mine. “Clara treats everything like a board meeting. She'll get over it. She always does.”

Mia smiled over her napkin. She was soft where Clara was demanding and grateful for every small kindness. With her, I did not have to argue through ten years of old grievances.

When the bill came, I handed the waiter my Onyx Black card.

He returned a minute later and bent close to the table. “I'm sorry, Mr. Thorne. The card was declined.”

“Run it again.”

“We did. The account has been permanently frozen by the primary cardholder.”

Clara's name was on that account. The embossed name on the front was mine, but she was the primary cardholder.

I paid with a backup card while the waiter waited beside my shoulder. My hand shook when I signed the receipt.

“Julian?” Mia asked. “What's wrong?”

“A game Clara likes to play.”

Freezing the card was supposed to frighten me into calling. Instead, I planned to reach the office first thing in the morning and remove every privilege tied to her name.

She had forgotten who ran the Thorne Group.

At that moment, termination notices from our largest clients were already arriving on my office server.