He Lost Me to His Best Friend novel Chapter 781

After hanging up the phone, Veronica Thorne felt a deep surge of smug satisfaction at her own tactical brilliance.

Ever since she picked up on the secret tension between Yardley Flynn and Sylvia Stetson, the gears in her head had been turning. Digging into Sylvia's past hadn't been hard. It didn't take long to discover that Sylvia's child had been sent off to Myanor, living under Kane Stetson's roof.

She already knew Sylvia's previous marriage to Julian had imploded because the child wasn't his. Connecting those dots made Sylvia's relationship with Kane glaringly obvious.

Armed with this knowledge, Veronica had quietly reached out to Kane, forging an underground alliance. Kane wanted Sylvia; she wanted Yardley. With their goals aligned, a partnership just made sense.

Besides, having ties to a man like Kane offered Thorne Industries plenty of advantages. Kane's underworld connections could sweep away problems that corporate lawyers couldn't touch. Just recently, a fatal accident at one of their construction sites had sparked massive outrage from the victim's family, threatening to trigger a PR nightmare. Kane had simply dispatched his men to pay the family a visit. A little hardball, and the family was silenced. The scandal vanished from the media overnight.

In Veronica's eyes, even villains were just useful cards in a well-played hand.

She was absolutely certain that with her intellect, she would crush Scarlett Langley, claim Yardley for herself, and take her rightful place at the top of the social ladder. After all, she had always been a queen. There wasn't a man alive who could resist Veronica Thorne.

Once Yardley was hers, she would see how useful he actually was. If he disappointed her, she could always set her sights on Julian Croft next... Why should Scarlett get to hoard all the top-tier men? Veronica refused to let that stand.

—

Scarlett slept soundly through the night. The next morning, she woke to her phone buzzing. It was her brother, Zachary.

"Are you up yet, Scarlett?"

Zachary sighed. "It's nothing you need to worry about right now. Get ready. I'll send a car for you and Julian soon."

He paused before adding, "Actually, you and Julian will have to attend the auction in my place. Someone's been buying my intel on the dark web, so I can't risk showing my face. I'll be monitoring the auction from the shadows."

With that, he hung up.

Scarlett frowned, an uneasy feeling settling in her chest. Ever since Zachary had reconnected with them, he had deliberately avoided seeing their mother. She had assumed it was because of his legs, but now it sounded like there was a deep-rooted misunderstanding between them.

But what could it be? As far as she remembered, Jacqueline had always been an incredibly devoted mother to them both, treating them with equal love and care.