Being Dumped by My EX, I Marriied His Older Brother-Chapter 110: Last Wish

Nina Thorne fell silent.

If this had been before April Graham appeared, she would have said "yes" without hesitation.

"We’re husband and wife. I can’t just stand by and watch you cheat on me."

Nina Thorne lowered her gaze, most of her anger having dissipated. Her tone softened. "Anyway, if you have other ideas, you can just tell me directly. I’m very magnanimous."

A dark glint flashed through Justin Kane’s deep eyes. He curled his thin lips, his words carrying a hidden meaning. "Mrs. Kane, being too magnanimous isn’t a good thing."

Nina Thorne turned her head to look at him.

Justin Kane lowered his head, eating his sweet tremella soup.

The sharp, defined lines of his profile were breathtakingly handsome.

His aura was noble and, as always, refined. When he turned to look at her, his eyes were like a starry sky, tempting her to lose herself in them.

Nina Thorne quickly looked away.

’What’s he talking about? Does he expect me to just tolerate him cheating on me?’

"My little firecracker, you really are becoming more and more like your old self," Justin Kane said in a husky voice, his eyes darkening.

’He wished she would put even half the effort she gave Cole Kane into him.’

"I just don’t want any internal strife," Nina Thorne retorted, glancing at him.

"If you and April Graham are inseparable, I don’t want to be the stumbling block in your way."

She paused, her expression serious. "I’ll step aside, and I won’t blame you."

Justin Kane’s Adam’s apple bobbed. His fingers tightened around the spoon.

After a long moment, a derisive laugh escaped him. "I told you, you don’t need to be so magnanimous with me."

For a second, Nina Thorne felt like he was angry.

The next, she heard his deep voice ask, "From the sound of it, you seem to really want April Graham to be the one I love?"

Nina Thorne feigned nonchalance and curled her lips into a smile. "I’m not blind. I saw it with my own eyes. She was holding onto your arm just like that at the hospital."

"Nina Thorne,"

Justin Kane suddenly grabbed her wrist and leaned forward, his gaze burning into her face. "How do you know the one I love is her, and not you?"

His tone sounded restrained, yet repressed.

The darkness in his eyes overflowed, as if the night itself was about to swallow her whole.

Nina Thorne was stunned.

She couldn’t figure out why he was suddenly so angry.

The heavy atmosphere around him only made his words feel more sarcastic.

Fortunately, she could still tell when someone was being ironic.

She wasn’t naive enough to believe him.

Nina Thorne looked at him with her clear eyes, the corners of her lips twitching into a sarcastic sneer.

"I have some self-awareness, you know."

"You really are smart."

Justin Kane stared at her for a long moment, his Adam’s apple bobbing. The pressure around him was low and heavy.

"Those five years of suffering you went through... you deserved it."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Justin Kane let her go, stood up, and walked upstairs.

Nina Thorne rubbed her wrist, glaring angrily.

’What does he mean by that?’

’Is he saying I deserved what happened during those five years I was with Cole Kane?’

Furious, Nina Thorne got up and followed him upstairs.

Seeing him enter the study, she quickened her pace, followed him, and pushed the door open.

"AHH—"

Nina Thorne’s forehead slammed into a hard back.

Justin Kane turned around, frowning slightly. "Is your brain not working? Can’t you even watch where you’re going?"

His sharp, cutting words made Nina Thorne even angrier.

Her chest felt tight with a mix of grievance and pain. She looked up at him, full of resentment. "The pain of the last five years doesn’t give you a reason to attack me."

"Yes, I foolishly gave five years of my life with nothing in return, but there’s nothing wrong with truly loving someone."

She suppressed her emotions as she accused him, her eyes red and brimming with unshed tears. She looked so wronged she seemed about to shatter.

"If I had known loving someone would hurt this much, I would never have loved at all." Nina Thorne took a deep breath and clenched her fists. Tears welled in her eyes, and though she fought hard to hold them back, her voice still cracked with a sob when she spoke.

"I just loved the wrong person. Why do you have to use that to attack me?"

"I hate you so much."

Nina Thorne was in absolute misery. After blurting it all out in one breath, she turned to leave.

But her wrist was suddenly seized.

In the next moment, her body was spun around and pulled into a broad, firm chest.

A large hand cupped the back of her head as the scent of cedarwood filled her nostrils.

The next second, her soft lips were captured. The man’s breath plundered and entwined with hers, his assault fierce and tantalizing.

Caught completely off guard, Nina Thorne struggled and pushed back, but his grip on her wrist only tightened, and the kiss grew more fervent.

It was as if he meant to steal the very air from her lungs, a punitive conquest.

Nina Thorne could barely breathe. Her body lost the strength to struggle, and she went limp in his arms.

After a while, the man’s domineering lips finally, reluctantly, released hers. His hot breath washed over her cheek.

"Loving someone for five years was not your mistake."

Justin Kane’s voice was slightly hoarse. "But you shouldn’t be so quick to push me away."

Nina Thorne blinked, much of the resentment that had built up in her chest dissipating. "But the one you love is back..."

’It seemed she refused to believe that *she* was the one he loved.’ 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Justin Kane understood her reaction and didn’t want to scare her.

His thumb gently caressed her cheek, his warm eyes fixed on her. "Nina Thorne, let time prove everything."

Nina Thorne’s heart softened. With her face slightly lowered, she looked up at him, appearing incredibly docile.

"Okay."

Hearing this, the corners of Justin Kane’s lips curved up slightly.

The heavy atmosphere around him eased, and a layer of tenderness veiled his dark eyes.

The tightness in Nina Thorne’s chest completely subsided. She then remembered something. "Oh, right. I have to go to Vistara for a shoot with the film crew."

"When?"

Justin Kane raised an eyebrow just as his phone rang at an inopportune moment.

He picked up his phone, glanced at it, and his expression immediately darkened. "I need to take this call."

Nina Thorne glanced at the screen.

She couldn’t see who it was.

But she didn’t ask. Meekly, she nodded. "Go ahead. I’ll step out."

"Mhm."

Justin Kane watched her leave the study before swiping his long fingers across the screen. "What’s the situation?"

Assistant Cheney’s tone was grave. "President Kane, the Matriarch has already negotiated with two board members to purchase their shares. They’re signing tonight... If our people hadn’t been watching closely, we might not have found out."

"Have you located them?"

"They’re in Crestfall. The Matriarch headed there an hour ago."

"Prep the helicopter. I’m heading over immediately."

Justin Kane commanded in a cold voice, a sinister look flashing in his eyes.

’Some mother he had.’

’Trying every trick in the book to swallow up the group’s shares and pave the way for her precious son?’

Heh...

’In the end, she never truly considered him part of the Kane Family.’

-

Nina Thorne was in a study, honing her programming skills.

Suddenly, she heard a door open outside and immediately got up to check.

Justin Kane was emerging from his study, his back to her as he walked toward the master bedroom.

It seemed he was looking for her.

"I’m over here," Nina Thorne called out to his back.

He stopped, turned to look at her, and without another word, strode toward her.

"I have to go out for something. I probably won’t be back tonight," Justin Kane said in a gentle voice. The overhead light cast a shadow from his tall, straight figure.

His striking features made Nina Thorne feel a little dazed.

It was as if he wasn’t quite real.

But she still registered his words and subconsciously assumed he was going to see April Graham again.

She lowered her gaze and gave a faint nod. "Okay. Go ahead."

As she finished speaking, Justin Kane suddenly reached out and patted her head. A half-smile played on his lips as he explained in his low, magnetic voice,

"It’s business. It has nothing to do with her."

The anxiety clutching Nina Thorne’s heart quickly subsided.

This act of proactively reporting his whereabouts gave her an added sense of security.

Justin Kane seemed to be in a hurry, leaving as soon as he finished speaking.

Hearing the sound of an engine in the courtyard, Nina Thorne remembered she hadn’t told him about going to Vistara tomorrow.

’But I can just tell him tomorrow morning,’ she thought.

Nina Thorne returned to the study and continued upgrading the smart-drive system’s program.

Once she completely cracked the system’s intelligence, bugs like the emergency avoidance function would also be fixed.

Then, she would no longer have to worry about safety malfunctions.

The new energy technology would also see a successful breakthrough.

And all of this had been her father’s vision.

Sadly, he never finished it. He even paid for it with his life.

But hadn’t her father thrown himself into this research all those years ago because of the trauma he suffered after her mother’s death in a car accident?

If...

If the car doors hadn’t failed to open due to a system malfunction after the crash, her mother wouldn’t have died.

Her father hated himself for not being able to rescue his wife trapped in the car. But even more, he hated the immaturity of the technology back then.

But her father died without ever solving the problem.

As the memories flooded back, Nina Thorne felt like she was drowning, struggling to breathe.

Her muscles trembled uncontrollably. As she stared at the code on the screen, scenes from the moments before her mother’s death flashed through her mind...

Her mother’s bloody face pressed against the car window, her life fading away.

The vehicle spontaneously combusted, then suddenly exploded.

She and her father could only watch helplessly as the fire engulfed her mother, burning her alive right before their eyes.

There was nothing they could do.

The night sky was tinged blood-red.

Just like the fiercely burning new-energy vehicle that had devoured the mother who loved her...

That image constantly overlapped with the scene of her father’s death.

Her father’s hand clutching hers before he died, his weak voice echoing endlessly in her mind.

"My precious daughter, Daddy can’t make it. My baby, don’t be sad, don’t cry. Daddy is just going to find Mommy."

"My baby is so brilliant, you’ll definitely complete the technology, right?"

"No..."

"Daddy, I don’t want you to die..."

Nina Thorne clung desperately to her father’s emaciated hand, crying in despair. "Daddy, I’ve already lost Mommy. Are you going to leave me too?"

"Please, don’t leave me, okay? I’m begging you..."

"Mommy’s already gone. Don’t leave me. Please don’t leave me, Daddy."

"..."

Tears streamed down Nina Thorne’s face, blurring her vision.

Her father looked at her with heartache, but his breathing grew weaker and weaker until the hand holding hers finally fell limp.

The heart monitor let out a piercing shriek.

The memories came like a tidal wave, overwhelming and drowning her.

"AHH—"

Nina Thorne let out a scream.

She slid off her chair and curled up in a corner by the wall, trembling. She hugged her head in agony.

Without realizing it, her face was already soaked with tears.

After what felt like an eternity, Nina Thorne gradually calmed down.

Just then, her phone buzzed with a new message notification.

Her hands still trembling, she picked up her phone and entered a different system.

A message from Mr. Locke popped up.

"Little one, the system’s initial operational test was a success. After a few more tests, it can be put into mass production."

"You’re a genius in this field. I believe that in the near future, you will definitely fulfill your master’s last wish."

Reading the message, Nina Thorne’s heart clenched painfully, and tears streamed down her face even faster.

But her gaze gradually hardened with determination.

She replied, "Mr. Albert, do you think Dad is watching over me from heaven, waiting for this day?"

Mr. Locke: "Your master always had high hopes for you. But of course, more than anything, he wanted you to be happy."

’Both Mom and Dad were gone, leaving her with only Grandpa. How could she possibly be happy?’

"I’ve decided. I’m going to restart the research and development of a new system."

Nina Thorne put down her phone and roughly wiped the tears from her face. A stubborn resilience shone through her red, swollen eyes.

She didn’t want to run away anymore.

She decided that from now on, she would properly fulfill her father’s last wish.