Chapter 2

Bourne's face showed a flash of irritation, so brief it was almost invisible, but he quickly covered it up. He smiled and said, "Thorne, this is a gift our family prepared for you. How could we give it to Hawk?"

Thorne let out an undisguised laugh and waved his hand. "Let's skip the runaround. I'll agree to what you want, but you have to agree to one thing from me."

Bourne paused, then relaxed into a hearty laugh. "Ha! Of course, why not? You're our son, after all!"

The smile at the corner of Thorne's mouth grew wider. "Once it's done, I'm cutting all ties with the Victor family. I'm ending the parent-child relationship with both of you. Consider my debt to you for raising me — paid in full."

What!

Bourne froze, his expression turning ugly. "Thorne, do you know what you're saying?! Cut ties with us? We raised you, we watched you grow up, and we never even asked you to repay us for it. And now you want to walk away? That's completely outrageous!"

"Repay you? You mean for being beaten and humiliated over and over since I was a kid? For taking the fall and going to prison for your own son? Fine, I let that go. But now I've barely walked out of prison and come home, and you want me to marry some mentally unstable woman for him?"

Bourne stood there stunned, at a loss for words.

So the adopted son knew everything all along.

He was no longer the same boy from before — the one with no opinions of his own, the one they could control completely.

"You're our child. Watch how you speak to your parents. Show some basic respect. The way you're acting right now is a real disappointment to us."

"Drop the loving father act. I know better than anyone what these years were like for me. You don't deserve to play that role."

Those words wiped the last trace of composure from Bourne's face. "Thorne, fix your attitude. Don't think for a second I can't still put you in your place!"

Thorne smiled. "Who do you think you are? Even now, you still want to discipline me like I'm a little kid? The Victor family is nothing to me now. I could crush you without a second thought."

Thorne's gaze was sharp, his stance unyielding.

Looking at him, Bourne suddenly felt like the young man standing in front of him was a completely different person from before.

Even more unsettling — Bourne could sense something about Thorne, some invisible force surrounding him, something that felt genuinely terrifying.

It made a wild thought creep into Bourne's mind: could Thorne actually mean what he said? Did he really have that kind of power?

No. That was impossible.

He was just a criminal. A man who'd just gotten out of prison. He'd grown up physically, sure, but he had no connections, no real abilities.

Bourne pushed the ridiculous thought aside. The anger hadn't gone away, but he reminded himself — they still needed Thorne to deal with Hawk's marriage situation.

Bourne let out a sigh and forced the conversation back on track. "Just make sure you don't regret this. The Victor family may not be the most powerful out there, but wealth and connections — those are things everyone needs. Walk away from us, cut ties with this family, and you lose our protection. I'll agree to your terms, but don't come crying to us later."

"I'll draft the legal documents for the separation tonight and have the butler leave them in your room."

"Thorne, taking you in is the biggest regret of my life and your mother's. You've brought nothing but trouble to this family. You're a curse. You're a devil."

A devil... there it was again.

Ever since Thorne had learned about the darkness living inside him, his whole life had been tangled up with that word — devil. There was no escaping it.

He'd heard this couple complain about it before.

The reason he'd been abandoned was because of what happened the moment he was born. Something deeply disturbing had taken place in that delivery room. Every doctor and nurse present had died. Only his unconscious mother and Thorne himself — who had seemingly entered the world on his own — survived. The operating room had been a scene of horror.

After that, Thorne's biological parents disappeared. The household servants had left the newborn on the doorstep of the Victor estate, and that was how his adoptive parents came to take him in.

But from the moment they did, strange things began happening in the Victor household. Family members and servants alike suffered relentless nightmares. In the dead of night, bizarre and unexplainable things would occur throughout the house.

People said it plainly: Thorne was the devil made flesh.

His adoptive parents had brought in priests, but not one of them had ever made it through the door. Every single one had died on the way.

Cursed. That label had been stamped on Thorne ever since.

Until Hawk came along.

---

The next day.

Dressed by the servants, Thorne stood in a tailored all-black suit — sharp nose, deep and calm eyes, his whole presence more striking and untamed than ever.

"Thorne, thank you for confessing to my crime and going to prison for me. And now you're stepping in for my wedding too."

"Everything you've done for me — I keep it all in my heart."

Hawk leaned against the table with both hands, a teasing smile on his face.

He'd known since childhood that their parents didn't care for Thorne.

All he had to do was act a little sweet, and he'd get ten times the love in return.

He'd always felt quietly smug about it:

Thorne, so what if you're their real son by blood? What do you have on me? In this house, you're nothing but a burden. A criminal.

Hawk looked down on him from the bottom of his heart.

"Hawk, save the act. After today, whatever was left between us is done."

Thorne's voice was as flat as ever.

Ten years in prison had made him indifferent to all of this.

Did anyone really think he'd agreed to this just to cut ties with the family?

No.

It was because his mentor had told him that his destined partner was no ordinary person.

And the bride in this arranged marriage happened to be someone who wasn't quite ordinary either.

On the chance it might mean something, Thorne decided to see for himself whether she was the one he was meant to find.

Across the room, Hawk caught Thorne's words and let out a scornful laugh, cursing him silently for not knowing what was good for him.

A moment later, a limited-edition Rolls-Royce pulled up outside the estate gates.

Thorne said nothing more. He didn't even glance back at his parents. He turned and walked out of the estate.

Bourne spat bitterly, "Absolutely no manners. What a savage."

Then he steadied himself. "Good riddance. Let the devil leave this house."

Thorne heard every word. He laughed coldly inside.

So this was what family meant. Nothing more than this.

Fine. From this day forward, he and the Victor family were done — completely and for good.

"You'll regret this."