Chapter 7

AMBER

The courthouse was surrounded by a sea of people. Cameras flashed like lightning, and reporters shouted my name as I stepped out of the car. The world was watching the Thorne family fall apart, and I was the one leading the way. I wore a sharp, charcoal-grey suit and kept my head high. I did not wear a veil or hide behind sunglasses. I wanted everyone to see that I was not afraid. I was not the broken girl they remembered.

Inside the courtroom, the air was cold and smelled of old wood and floor wax. Justine was already sitting at the front table. He looked different than he did a week ago. His expensive suit was slightly wrinkled, and there were dark circles under his eyes. He didn't have his usual smug smile. Beside him sat three men in dark suits. They were the most expensive lawyers in the city. Evelyn had clearly spent a fortune to make sure her son did not lose a single penny in this divorce.

I walked down the aisle. The sound of my heels on the marble floor was the only noise in the room. I sat at my table, alone. My lawyer, a woman named Sarah who was known for being a shark in the courtroom, patted my hand.

"They are going to try to say you are mentally unstable," Sarah whispered. "They want to argue that the freezing of the assets was an illegal act of revenge. Stay calm. Do not let Justine get under your skin."

I nodded. I looked over at Justine. He caught my eye and narrowed his. He leaned over to his lead lawyer, a man named Mr. Sterling, and whispered something. Sterling nodded and stood up as the judge entered the room.

"Your Honor," Mr. Sterling began, his voice booming. "This is a simple case of a marriage ending. However, my client, Mr. Justine Thorne, has been subjected to a cruel and calculated attack by his wife. Mrs. Thorne has used stolen private information to freeze my client's personal funds. She has harassed him in the media. We are asking the court to dismiss her claims for a large settlement and to unfreeze his assets immediately. She is acting out of spite, not out of a search for justice."

I felt the anger rising, but I kept my face like stone.

"Mr. Sterling," the judge said, looking over her glasses. "There are criminal charges pending against your client regarding a hit and run. The freezing of assets was done by a federal investigator, not by this court. We are here today to discuss the dissolution of the marriage and the division of property."

"Exactly, Your Honor," Sterling replied. "And we argue that Mrs. Thorne deserves nothing. She has already caused millions of dollars in damage to the Thorne reputation. She has broken her vows of loyalty."

Justine looked at me then. He looked proud. He thought his lawyers could talk their way out of the truth. He thought that because he was a Thorne, the rules of right and wrong did not apply to him.

"Does the plaintiff have anything to add?" the judge asked.

Sarah stood up. "Yes, Your Honor. We are not just asking for a divorce. We are asking for a full audit of the Thorne estate. We have reason to believe that the marriage was built on a foundation of lies and criminal negligence. And to prove that Justine Thorne has violated every moral and legal contract of this marriage, we would like to call our first witness."

The room went quiet. Justine looked confused. He knew I didn't have many friends left. He thought his mother had scared everyone away.

"We call Mark Thorne to the stand," Sarah said.

A loud gasp echoed through the courtroom. Justine jumped to his feet. "What? Mark? What is he doing here?"

"Sit down, Mr. Thorne!" the judge barked.

The back doors of the courtroom opened. Mark walked in. He was dressed in a simple black suit. He looked strong and steady. He did not look at Justine. He did not look at the lawyers. He walked straight to the witness stand, took the oath, and sat down.

The silence was so heavy it felt like it might break the floor. The Thorne family was famous for their loyalty to each other. A brother testifying against a brother was something that never happened in their world. It was the ultimate betrayal in Evelyn's eyes.

Sarah walked toward the stand. "Mr. Thorne, please state your relationship to the defendant."

"I am his older brother," Mark said. His voice was deep and calm. It filled the room.

"And why are you here today, Mark?"

Mark finally turned his head. He looked Justine right in the eye. Justine looked like he wanted to crawl under the table.

"I am here because I can no longer stay silent," Mark said. "For years, I protected my brother. I protected our family name because I thought that was what a man was supposed to do. But I was wrong. My brother is not a man who deserves protection. He is a coward who has spent his life hurting people and using our mother's money to hide the blood."

"Objection!" Mr. Sterling shouted. "This is personal bias! This has nothing to do with the divorce!"

"Overruled," the judge said, leaning forward. She was fascinated. "Continue, Mr. Thorne."

"Last week," Mark said, "I went to the lake house. I saw the evidence Amber found. I saw the video from that night. But more than that, I have seen the records of how Justine treated Amber. I am the head of security for Thorne Holdings. I have the logs of the secret apartments he rented for his mistress, Jade. I have the receipts for the jewelry he bought with company money while his wife was mourning their child."

Mark reached into his jacket and pulled out a small stack of papers.

"These are the records of the secret accounts Justine used to fund his affair," Mark said, handing them to a court officer. "He did not just cheat on his wife. He stole from our family business to pay for his lies. He treated Amber like she was a ghost in her own home."

Justine was shaking now. "You traitor!" he hissed loud enough for the front row to hear. "How could you do this to your own blood?"

Mark didn't flinch. "You are the one who betrayed our blood, Justine. You left a member of this family to die on the side of a road. You let our nephew die because you were too scared to be caught with another man's wife. You are the traitor."

The judge hammered her gavel as the room broke into whispers and shouts. Reporters were typing furiously on their phones. This was the headline of the century. The Thorne empire was not just cracking; it was exploding from the inside.

"Your Honor," Sarah said, her voice sharp and clear. "Based on the testimony of the defendant's own brother, it is clear that Justine Thorne entered this marriage in bad faith and maintained it through fraud and criminal activity. We are asking for seventy percent of the marital assets, the immediate transfer of the Rivera family property back to Amber, and a permanent restraining order."

Mr. Sterling tried to speak, but he looked defeated. Even the best lawyer in the world cannot fight the truth when it comes from the mouth of a brother.

The judge looked at Justine with pure disgust. "This court will take a recess to review the documents provided by Mr. Mark Thorne. But let me be clear, Mr. Sterling. If these records are accurate, your client will be lucky to leave this courtroom with the clothes on his back."

The judge stood up and walked out. The moment she was gone, Justine lunged toward the witness stand.

"I'll kill you!" Justine screamed at Mark. "You think you can take my life? You think you can take my money? I'll destroy you both!"

Court officers grabbed Justine and forced him back into his chair. He was sweating and red-faced. He looked pathetic. He looked like the "scared little boy" I had called him at the lake house.

Mark stood up and walked down from the stand. He walked over to me. He didn't say a word. He just stood by my side, a solid wall of protection. I stood up and looked at Justine.

"The money is gone, Justine," I said. I spoke softly, but in the quiet courtroom, everyone heard me. "The name Thorne is a curse now. And the best part is, you did it to yourself. I just watched."

I turned my back on him. I walked out of the courtroom with Mark beside me. As we pushed through the heavy doors, the bright lights of the hallway blinded me for a second. But I didn't stop.

We walked out of the courthouse and down the stone steps. The crowd went wild. People were cheering my name. Some women were holding signs that said Justice for Amber. I felt a strange warmth in my chest. I wasn't alone anymore.

Mark walked me to my car. He opened the door for me.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

I looked at him. He had just lost his family. He had just turned his back on his mother and his brother for me.

"Why did you do it, Mark?" I asked. "You didn't have to go that far. You could have just given me the papers."

Mark looked at the courthouse, then back at me. "Because for the first time in my life, I wanted to be on the right side of history. And because you shouldn't have to fight them alone."

He reached out and tucked a loose hair behind my ear. His touch was gentle, so different from the cold way Justine used to touch me. For a moment, the world stopped. The noise of the reporters faded away. There was just the two of us.

"Evelyn is going to come for you now," Mark warned. "She knows she can't win in court, so she will try to win in the dark. You need to stay at my place. It's the only place her security team can't get into."

I nodded. I knew the war was moving into its most dangerous phase. Evelyn Thorne was a cornered animal, and a cornered animal is the most likely to bite.

"Let's go," I said.

I got into the car, and Mark got into the driver's seat. As we drove away from the courthouse, I looked back one last time. I saw Evelyn Thorne standing at the top of the steps. She was dressed in white, looking like a statue. She was staring at our car. Her face was a mask of cold fury.

I didn't blink. I stared back until we turned the corner.