The revelation hung between them, heavy and devastating. Silas Elias. Seth Alistair. The names were the summation of their entire broken history, a mirror reflecting Elias's greatest love and his greatest failure.
Elias lowered his hands slowly, relinquishing the desperate urge to touch her. He looked away from Kaelen's wounded eyes and toward the massive, panoramic windows. The lights of the city, the empire he had built, seemed insignificant now, cold and meaningless.
"My father," Elias finally said, his voice a low, rough rumble of pain and dawning fury. "You put the name of the man who destroyed us on my son."
"He destroyed us because you let him," Kaelen shot back, her voice tight with unspent rage. "He told me you would choose the name, the power, the Thorne legacy—and he was right. I ran so I could look at my boys every day and remember the price of trusting a Thorne."
Elias turned back, the raw confession of pain on her face forcing him to confront his true identity. He wasn't the victim; he was the perpetrator. The pain she had inflicted by naming her son after his father was a direct reflection of the pain he had inflicted by walking away.
"You're right," Elias conceded, the words thick with shame. "I was a coward. I listened to his threats about disinheritance and public scandal, and I chose the throne instead of the woman I loved."
He walked toward the sleek, heavy mahogany bar, not for a drink, but for the grounding weight of the solid wood.
"But you were wrong about something, Kaelen," he continued, his eyes now blazing with a new, terrifying intensity. "That name—Seth Alistair—it wasn't just your reminder. It was a curse. It tied my son to the toxicity that almost ruined me. And I will not let my father's legacy touch my children's future."
He pulled out his phone, his movements sudden and decisive, the CEO persona returning, but this time driven by paternal rage, not ambition.
"I need your legal counsel's number," Elias commanded, his eyes focused on Kaelen.
Kaelen felt a surge of panic. "Are you going to file for custody? To punish me for the names?"
Elias looked at her, truly seeing the fear in her eyes. "Punish you? You saved them. You saved me. I am not fighting you, Kaelen. I am fighting for us. All three of us."
He punched a number on his speed dial—not for a lawyer, but for his father, Alistair Thorne.
Kaelen watched, frozen, as the most powerful man in the city listened to the phone ring, his expression hardening with every passing second.
"Hello, Father," Elias said, his voice flat and dangerously low once the call connected. "We need to talk. I know what you did to Kaelen Vance five years ago."
He cut off his father's immediate protest. "No, you listen. I am officially withdrawing my name from the running for the Chairman position of Thorne Global. Effective immediately. I will no longer participate in the management of the family trust or the legacy funds."
Kaelen gasped, utterly stunned. He was dismantling his entire life, the empire he had chosen over her.
"My focus has shifted, Father," Elias continued, his voice ringing with absolute certainty. "I have sons now. Twin sons. Silas Elias and Seth Alistair."
He paused, letting the final name hit his father with the force of a weapon.
"Alistair is the name I am changing, Father. I am not allowing you to touch my children's lives or their names. Seth's middle name will be legally changed to Rhys. I want no part of your name or your legacy. Consider yourself cut off from the only bloodline you cared about."
Elias ended the call without waiting for a reply, placing the phone down on the polished bar top. He looked utterly drained, but the frantic obsession in his eyes had been replaced by a quiet, fierce determination.
He had torn down his own walls. He had chosen Kaelen.
He turned to her, his posture conveying a silent, potent demand.
"The fortress is gone, Kaelen," he said, stepping closer until only a sliver of space remained between them. "I have relinquished the throne. I have changed the name. I have burned the bridge. The contest you started when you ran is over. I demand the new future you spoke of."
He reached out, his hand cupping her jaw, his thumb brushing away a solitary tear she hadn't realized she shed.
"You owe me the chance to be Silas's father and Seth's father," Elias whispered, his voice thick with emotion. "And you owe me the truth: Do you still love the man who is finally willing to give up everything for you?"