Being Dumped by My EX, I Marriied His Older Brother-Chapter 148: No Relation Anymore

Nina Thorne waited outside the operating room, consumed by anxiety.

Her heart felt like it had a hole in it. She was so numb that she couldn’t even feel the pain anymore.

A short while later, the Kane family arrived.

Ethan Kane helped Old Master Kane over to her.

Old Master Kane looked at her pale face, overcome with guilt.

"Lady Thorne, the Kane family has wronged you tonight..."

Furious, Old Master Kane struck his cane heavily on the floor. "I will get to the bottom of this with Justin Kane and give you a proper explanation."

Nina Thorne had always respected Old Master Kane.

She didn’t blame him for what happened tonight.

Her vacant eyes slowly turned to him, her voice hoarse. "Mr. Kane, my grandfather will be all right, won’t he?"

Old Master Kane quickly replied, "He will. Of course, he’ll be all right."

Nina Thorne nodded lightly with a soft hum, but her gaze was still tinged with a faint sorrow. "I believe he’ll be all right, too."

She looked completely lifeless.

It was as if her spirit had been broken, her emotions muted.

Old Master Kane’s heart ached watching her. He would rather she cry or make a scene—anything would be better than this state, which was deeply unsettling.

Nina Thorne turned her head back to stare quietly at the emergency room doors and said softly, "Mr. Kane, it’s very late. Your health is important. You should go home and rest."

"Nina Thorne..." Ethan Kane called out to her, alarmed.

’This is too strange.’

Nina Thorne ignored him.

Old Master Kane’s voice was choked with emotion. "Lady Thorne, if you want to cry, then cry. Don’t hold it in."

Nina Thorne lowered her gaze, her expression terrifyingly calm and cold. "Mr. Kane, I want to wait here for my grandfather. You should all go home first."

Old Master Kane understood. She was telling them to leave.

Tonight, the entire Kane family had gone too far.

They had wronged her.

Ethan Kane started to speak, but Old Master Kane stopped him with a hand on his arm. "Alright, we’ll leave first. Lady Thorne, if there’s anything you need from me, just give me a call."

Nina Thorne stood motionless.

Old Master Kane sighed deeply and left in silence with Ethan Kane.

Once they were some distance away, Old Master Kane said angrily, "Find out exactly what happened tonight! I want a clear explanation!"

"If anything happens to Master Thorne, the Kane family will be inescapably to blame!"

He was so agitated that he broke into a coughing fit.

Ethan Kane quickly patted his back and hurriedly agreed. "Don’t be angry. There must be some misunderstanding."

"I’ll have a good talk with Justin and find out what really happened."

Just as they entered the elevator,

Nina Thorne’s phone rang.

She answered, and a concerned voice on the other end asked, "How is Master Thorne?"

"He’s still in the emergency room."

Nina Thorne’s gaze slowly regained its focus. Her eyes were bloodshot, yet they held a numb coldness. "And them?"

"We did as you said. They’ve all been taken in for questioning now."

Nina Thorne hummed in acknowledgment, rejected the other person’s offer to come over, and hung up impassively.

Assistant Cheney had been keeping watch from a short distance away.

At the end of the hallway, a dark figure was hidden behind a wall, their eyes fixed on her.

The hospital corridor was deathly quiet late at night.

The bright white light shone down on Nina Thorne, illuminating her frail, slender figure and making her look so lonely and helpless.

Time ticked by, second by second.

Nina Thorne’s face was pale, her eyes fixed on the doors of the emergency room. Tears of fear streamed silently down her face until they covered her cheeks.

She raised her hands to wipe away the tears, but it was as if she could never wipe them all away. She wiped them again and again...

Her heart felt as if it were splitting open. In that moment, her emotions erupted, and she completely broke down.

She suddenly covered her face with her hands and squatted down, burying her face between her hands and knees, her shoulders trembling violently.

But she bit her lower lip so hard it nearly bled, refusing to let a single sob escape.

Watching this, Justin Kane’s throat tightened. The hand gripping the edge of the wall turned white from the force, his nails digging into the plaster. Blood immediately seeped from under his fingernails.

He lifted his foot, about to rush over and hold her.

But suddenly, with a BANG,

The doors to the emergency room opened. A doctor walked out, took off his mask, and said, "The patient was treated in time. His life is not in danger..."

The tension that had gripped Nina Thorne instantly snapped, and she covered her face and began to weep.

’Thank God...’

’Grandfather is okay.’

Hearing this, Justin Kane froze mid-stride.

His deep eyes darkened, and he watched her with restraint.

Assistant Cheney noticed him and sighed helplessly.

He quickly went to take care of the paperwork and arranged for Master Thorne to be moved to a private VIP ward.

"Ma’am, everything has been arranged. You must be tired. Why don’t I take you home to rest?" Assistant Cheney whispered, standing outside the ward and looking at Nina Thorne. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Nina Thorne didn’t answer his question, instead saying, "You’ve worked hard tonight. Thank you. You should go home and rest."

Assistant Cheney opened his mouth to say something, but then he caught sight of a tall figure approaching and quietly walked away.

Nina Thorne sensed someone drawing near.

The air was filled with a familiar scent of cedarwood, along with the faint fragrance of a woman’s perfume she had smelled on him a few times before.

Nina Thorne’s lips curled into a mocking smile.

"Nina Thorne, are you okay?"

Justin Kane came up behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "There are nurses here to watch him. Go home and rest first..."

The moment his hand landed on her shoulder, she flinched away as if she had been touched by something filthy.

She looked Justin Kane right in the eye, her gaze frigid. "Didn’t I tell you not to follow me? What are you doing here?"

A pang of tightness gripped Justin Kane’s chest, but he acted as if he didn’t feel her coldness. "I was worried, so I came to see."

Nina Thorne raised her eyelids to look at him, her gaze as cool as if she were looking at a stranger. "I wouldn’t dare trouble Mr. Kane. Please leave."

"Nina Thorne..."

Justin Kane took a step forward.

The figure she once found handsome and reassuring now felt like a mountain, crushing her until she could barely breathe.

She was agitated, yet her voice was hoarse and restrained. "I told you to leave. Did you hear me?"

Her eyes were rimmed with red and glistening with tears, but her gaze was stubbornly cold.

The emotions she had suppressed all night were still trapped tightly in her chest.

She clenched her fists, her sharp nails digging so deep into her palms that they almost drew blood, but she felt no pain at all.

"Okay, I’ll go. Don’t get upset..."

Afraid of provoking her further, Justin Kane quickly backed away a few steps.

Nina Thorne looked at him with her red-rimmed eyes. "Justin Kane, I won’t hold what happened tonight against you."

She clenched her fists and said decisively, "Since you don’t want to acknowledge this marriage, it just so happens that I don’t think it needs to exist anymore. Let’s find a time to get our divorce papers. From now on, you and I will have nothing to do with each other."

Justin Kane’s pupils contracted sharply as he stared at her in shock.

But she simply averted her gaze, pushed open the door to the hospital room, and walked in resolutely.

Justin Kane immediately raised his hand as if to push the door open, but he suddenly stopped. His eyes darkened, and he slowly lowered his hand.

Nina Thorne leaned her back against the door panel.

Hearing the footsteps outside fade away, she felt as if her backbone had been suddenly ripped out. She slid weakly to the floor as tears streamed down her face.

But as she looked at her grandfather on the bed with his respirator, she was terrified he would hear her crying. She bit down hard on the fleshy part of her hand between her thumb and forefinger, her body wracked with silent, convulsive sobs.

A dense, piercing pain suddenly shot through her heart. It was so agonizing that her tears fell even faster, and she almost fainted.

That night, Nina Thorne cried for a long, long time.

She hugged herself, curled up in the corner between the door and the wall, until she cried herself to sleep.

「The police station was unusually bustling late at night.」

Cole Kane, Serena Kane, and Jessica Jenkins had all been brought in for interrogation.

Countless reporters were camped out in front of the station.

Felicia Yates wanted to go bail them out with a lawyer in person, but a phone call from Ethan Kane stopped her. He warned, "The entire Kane Group is under a microscope right now. If you go into that police station and get photographed, you can imagine what will happen to the stock market tomorrow!"

"Get back here immediately. Let the lawyers handle it."

Felicia Yates never imagined that tonight’s events would cause such a huge commotion.

Her original plan was to see Nina Thorne’s reputation utterly ruined, then have her divorce Justin Kane, and finally have Cole Kane take her in.

From then on, Nina Thorne would be saddled with a bad name, completely at her mercy.

She never expected the situation to spiral so far out of control.

The trending videos about Cole Kane and Serena Kane online would be taken down, only to shoot back to the top of the charts a few minutes later.

There was clearly someone behind the scenes, deliberately blowing the matter up.

"It must be that bitch Nina Thorne! She’s the one trying to ruin Cole and Serena!"

Felicia Yates was trembling with rage, but her car was parked far across the street from the police station. She didn’t dare go any closer.

"You have no proof. Stop with the malicious speculation and get back here now," Ethan Kane said in a tone that brooked no argument.

Felicia Yates gritted her teeth but finally, reluctantly, told the driver to head back.

Tonight was destined to be a restless one.

When Seth Lawson and Shawn Sinclair rushed to the hospital’s open-air parking lot and found Justin Kane, he was leaning against his car, a lit cigarette in his hand, his gaze fixed on the hospital building before him.

He was only in black trousers and a white shirt; his suit jacket was nowhere to be seen.

His tie was loosened, along with the top two buttons of his shirt. His hair was disheveled. His usual dignified and meticulous image was gone, replaced by an air of utter dejection.

"Justin Kane, what the hell happened? Tonight was supposed to be the public banquet. How did it turn into this?" Seth Lawson strode up to him, his tone almost an accusation.

He had been called back to the Lawson family for a lecture tonight, which delayed him from getting to the hotel.

He never expected something like this to happen.

In this matter, he was on Nina Thorne’s side.

He couldn’t even imagine how much pain she must be in tonight.

Especially when, after he arrived, he heard that Master Thorne had been so angry he coughed up blood and was rushed to the hospital.

Justin Kane’s eyes were dark and shadowed. His sharp brows were furrowed with a hint of restraint.

"You’ve waited ten years for this day. You wouldn’t have let this happen unless something was wrong."

Shawn Sinclair frowned, sensing something was amiss. "Kane, is there anyone in this world who can actually threaten you?"

Justin Kane’s throat tightened and his brow furrowed, but his expression remained grim and profound.

Seth Lawson was less composed. "Threaten him with what? You just said no one can threaten him, so how could he be threatened!"

He felt indignant on Nina Thorne’s behalf.

Although he had complained before about Nina Thorne being hopelessly in love, right now, he genuinely ached for her.

Shawn Sinclair said thoughtfully, "When a person has a weakness, things naturally change."

"Unless someone held a knife to Nina Thorne’s throat and threatened to kill her, maybe then Kane would just furrow his brow..."

Seth Lawson’s words trailed off. He suddenly realized something and looked at Justin Kane with shocked eyes.