Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The silence that followed after her statement was deafening. This was the first time in her life that Amberlyn had managed to shut up the entre family. Which was a big deal as Amberlyn had always behaved like a doormat allowing herself to be trampled upon without any dignity.

Eleanor's fork clattered against her plate, as she couldn't believe her ears.. Veronica's mouth fell open in shock. 

Even Lucas seemed to sense that something big  was happening as he kept looking around.

"You can't be serious," Thomas said finally, but his voice lacked its usual authority, fr the first time, he sounded unsure and a bit scared to her.

"I've never been more serious about anything in my life." Ambelyn met his eyes steadily without backing down as she continued speaking. she did not care anymore. Iniko entire family didn't care if he lived or not, playing around with his life. She was going to make sure that she gets Iniko out of this hellish family.

"Sign them, Thomas. Give us both what we want." She added, pushing the papers and pen closer to his hand.

"I won't sign anything," he said, pushing the papers back toward her. 

"This family doesn't divorce. We work through our problems."

"Like you worked through the problem of Iniko needing a heart transplant?" she asked sweetly. "By giving it to someone else?"

Thomas's face flushed red at her words as he tried to come up with an excuse on the spot.. "That was a medical decision—"

"That was a choice," she interrupted. 

"You chose Veronica's son over yours. You chose your mistress over your wife. You've made your priorities crystal clear, Thomas. I'm simply acknowledging them legally."

"The scandal," Eleanor breathed, her face pale with horror. klow, she never believed she was capable of drawing out this kind of behaviour from her mother-in-law. 

"Think of what this would do to the family name."

"I am thinking of it," Ambelyn replied. 

"I'm thinking that maybe the family name deserves a little scandal. Maybe it's time people knew what kind of people the Blackwoods really are."

"You're being hysterical," Thomas said, but she could hear the uncertainty in his voice now. "You don't mean this."

"Don't I?" She stood slowly, pulling Iniko's bracelet from her purse, holding It out to the light for everyone to see as I kept speaking. "My son made this for you, Eleanor. He spent hours on it in his hospital bed, using what little strength he has to create something beautiful for a grandmother who sees him as nothing more than an embarrassment."

She set the bracelet on the table as she continued speaking.

"He asked me to tell you he made it specially for you," she continued, her voice breaking slightly as she swallowed hard, the pain I in her chest, struggling to make itself shown as she suppressed it down and kept speaking.

"Because despite everything that you people have put him through, ever since he could walk on his chubby feet, he still believes in family. He still believes in love. He still believes in the goodness of people who have shown him nothing but contempt."

Eleanor stared at the bracelet as if it were an accusation.

"But I'm done believing," Ambelyn said, her voice growing stronger, her love for her son giving her all the courage she needed.. 

"I'm done hoping. I'm done pretending that any of you are capable of basic human decency."

She turned back to Thomas, her eyes 

blazing with justified fury.

 

"Sign the papers, or I'll make sure every society page in the city knows exactly what kind of man you are. I'll tell them how you let your sick son suffer while you played house with your mistress. I'll tell them how you stole a dying child's only chance at life to benefit your bastard."

"How dare you—" Veronica started to rise, but Thomas held up a hand to stop her.

"You wouldn't," he said, but his voice lacked conviction.

"Try me." Ambelyn's smile was sharp as a blade. "I have nothing left to lose, Thomas. Nothing at all. But you do. Your reputation, your business partnerships, your social standing—all of it depends on maintaining the facade of respectability. How long do you think that will last when people learn the truth?"

Thomas stared at her for a long moment, seeing her clearly for perhaps the first time in their marriage. The compliant wife was gone, replaced by a woman with nothing to lose and everything to fight for.

Slowly, he picked up the pen.

"This doesn't mean anything," he said as he signed each page. "You'll get nothing. No money, no property, no support."

"I don't want anything that belongs to this family," she replied. "The only thing I'm taking is my son. And I can promise you this—he'll be better off without the Blackwood name than he ever was with it."

She snatched the papers as soon as he finished signing, sliding them back into her purse before anyone could change their minds. Then she pulled off her wedding ring—the symbol of five years of misery and humiliation—and set it on the table beside Iniko's bracelet.

"Goodbye," she said simply, looking around the table one last time. "I hope you all find happiness in your new arrangement."

"You won't get a penny of the family money," Veronica called out as Ambelyn headed for the door. "Not a single cent!"

Ambelyn paused at the threshold, turning back with a smile that held no warmth whatsoever.

"I told you—I don't want your tainted money. The only thing of value in this family was my son, and he was never really yours anyway. He has too much heart to be a Blackwood. FYI, Thomas, you may need to go take a class at sexual intercourse, Veronica's fake moaning was really annoying to hear."

She left them sitting in stunned silence, 

The rain started as she got outside. She stood in the driveway for a moment, letting the water wash over her as she processed what she had just done. She was free. Divorced. Alone except for Iniko.

And she had no idea how she was going to get home.

She pulled out her phone to call an Uber, but the app showed a wait time of over an hour. The Blackwood estate was in a remote area, after all.

With no other option, she started walking, making her way toward the main road. 

She had walked perhaps half a mile when she heard a car approaching behind her.  When she turned, she saw an unfamiliar black sedan with tinted windows.

The car pulled alongside her and the passenger window rolled down, revealing a woman with kind eyes and graying hair pulled back in a bun.

"My dear, you can't possibly walk in this weather," the woman said, her voice carrying a slight accent that might have been European. "Please, let us give you a ride."

"Oh, that's very kind, but—" Ambelyn started to refuse, but the woman cut her off with a gentle but firm gesture.

"I insist. It's not safe for a woman to be walking alone at night, especially in this storm."

There was something about the woman's tone that brooked no argument. Ambelyn found herself nodding, moving toward the rear door that someone inside had already unlocked.

"Thank you so much," she said as she slid into the backseat, grateful to be out of the rain. "I really appreciate—"

The words died in her throat as she looked up to find herself face-to-face with Niklaus Thorne.

He sat in the far corner of the backseat, a tablet in his hands.

Their eyes met across the leather seat, and for a moment, the world seemed to stop, as Amberlyn couldn't hear anything else other than her heart beating faster than usual.

"Klaus, darling," the woman was saying, apparently unaware of the tension crackling in the backseat, 

"we'll need to drop a kind guest somewhere else before we head home. I know it's late, but we simply can't leave her out in the rain.

"Of course, Mother," he said finally, his voice carefully neutral. But he didn't look away from Ambelyn. "Whatever you think is best."

Mother. The woman in the front seat was his mother. Somehow, that made everything infinitely more complicated.

"I'm sorry," Ambelyn managed, finding her voice at last. "I didn't realize... if this is inconvenient—"

"Nonsense," his mother replied warmly. "Any friend of Klaus's is welcome. Though I don't believe we've been properly introduced. I'm Anastasia Thorne."

The silence stretched uncomfortably as both women waited for Niklaus to make the introduction that would never come. How could he introduce her? As his former victim? His one-night stand? The woman whose life he had unknowingly helped destroy?

"I'm Ambelyn," she said finally. "And I'm not... we're not friends, exactly."

"No," Niklaus agreed quietly, his voice carrying undertones she couldn't decipher. "We're not friends."