Chapter 46: The Fall of the Thorne Family

A letter lay on Damon’s desk.

Its black seal bore the crest of the Thorne family—a crowned wolf surrounded by thirteen stars.

Thomas stood on the other side of the desk, his expression unusually grave.

"Young Master, this letter arrived from the Central District Judicial Oversight Committee. They have requested your presence regarding a matter connected to the Thorne family’s inheritance."

Damon glanced at the seal.

"Another inheritance issue?"

"Not quite." Thomas hesitated. "They are reviewing the status of one of the family’s old inheritances. Apparently, someone has questioned whether it was properly accounted for following the deaths of the former masters."

Damon leaned back.

"Who questioned it?"

"The letter doesn’t say."

He broke the seal and unfolded the document. Most of it was formal language, references to historical records, and a request for documents that supposedly should have been submitted four years ago.

One sentence caught his attention.

The review concerns assets and hereditary privileges recorded under the original Thorne family registry.

Damon read it twice.

"Thomas, how much do you know about the Thorne family’s history?"

The old butler looked at him.

"Quite a lot, Young Master. I served your family for most of my life."

"Then tell me what happened four years ago."

Thomas lowered his eyes toward the letter.

"Four years ago, the Thorne family fell."

He paused before continuing.

"Before that, the Thorne family was one of the wealthiest in the country. Our assets stretched across industries, cities, and regions. We owned estates, commercial properties, private lands, and businesses that had existed for generations."

He paused.

"But wealth alone was never what made the Thornes powerful."

"The family also possessed several secret inheritances, passed down from one generation to the next. They included assets, privileges, and resources that never appeared in ordinary estate records. Only the head of the family and a select few knew their full extent."

"Secret inheritances?"

"That is one way to describe them. Their exact nature was known only to those entrusted with them."

Thomas’s voice grew quieter.

"Those inheritances were part of what allowed the Thorne family to remain powerful for generations. They gave us advantages other families couldn’t easily replicate. Wealth attracted allies, but those inheritances gave the family leverage."

Damon glanced at the letter again.

"At our height, the Thorne family employed thousands of guards and security personnel across its properties and holdings. Blackstone Manor alone maintained a substantial security force. There were separate teams for the main residence, the surrounding grounds, transportation, and the family’s other properties."

Thomas looked around the study.

"Back then, this estate was never truly quiet. There were guards at every entrance, staff throughout the residence, vehicles arriving and departing, and people coming to report on the family’s affairs. Even at night, someone was always on duty."

He fell silent.

Now the corridor outside was empty. Most of the estate’s rooms remained unused. A handful of servants maintained the mansion, and Thomas handled its daily affairs.

The difference was almost absurd.

"What happened?" Damon asked.

"Your parents died four years ago. You disappeared from public life. With the head of the family gone and no one taking control of its affairs, the family’s influence collapsed. Holdings were liquidated, operations were abandoned or transferred, and the security force was gradually dismissed."

"All of it because two people died?"

"No." Thomas’s expression tightened. "Their deaths began the decline. What followed was more complicated."

Damon noticed the distinction.

"Explain."

"I don’t know everything, Young Master. Some matters were handled by lawyers and senior administrators. Others were settled before I could intervene. By the time I understood how quickly things were changing, much of the family’s former structure had already disappeared."

"And the secret inheritances?"

Thomas hesitated.

"Those are precisely the matters I was never fully informed about. Your father kept certain records separate from the ordinary estate accounts. After his death, I could not locate everything."

Damon’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"You’re telling me the family possessed inheritances that helped make it one of the most powerful in the country, but after your master’s death, some of their records disappeared?"

"I am telling you that I could not find all of them."

That answer was more interesting than a denial.

Damon placed the letter on the desk.

Four years ago, a family powerful enough to maintain thousands of guards had begun to collapse. Its holdings had scattered, its influence had faded, and most of its people had disappeared from the estate.

Now only Damon Thorne, Thomas, and a small number of servants remained at Blackstone Manor.

And someone had suddenly decided to examine the family’s old inheritances.

"Why now?" Damon asked.

"I cannot say."

"Did anyone ever try to claim those inheritances after your masters died?"

"Not to my knowledge. There were disputes concerning ordinary properties and accounts, but nothing quite like this."

Damon tapped the letter with one finger.

"Find every record you still have concerning the family’s private inheritances. I want the original documents, not summaries prepared by lawyers. Start with my father’s private study and the family archives."

Thomas bowed.

"At once, Young Master."

"One more thing. What happened to the people who served this family? The senior administrators, the security commanders, the people who knew how everything worked?"

"Some left when the family declined. Others found employment elsewhere. A few retired. I lost contact with many of them."

"All of them?"

"Not all. There may still be people who remember how things were managed before the collapse."

"Find them. Quietly."

Thomas nodded and left the study.

Damon remained at his desk, staring at the letter.

The system had given him the name Damon Thorne, verified his legal history, and placed him in possession of Blackstone Manor. He had accepted the arrangement because it served his interests.

He had never needed to know much more.

But now the name carried a different weight.

The Thorne family had fallen from the heights of the country’s elite to a nearly empty estate. Its secret inheritances remained unaccounted for, and now someone had taken an interest in them.

The timing bothered Damon more than the letter itself.

He opened the system interface.

There was no new notification. No explanation. Nothing about the Thorne family or its lost inheritances.

He closed it.

Perhaps the system had simply given him a convenient identity. Perhaps there was a more complicated reason. He had no evidence either way.

But he disliked the idea of possessing something without understanding its value.

Especially when someone else might know more about it than he did.

Damon picked up the letter once more.

The committee wanted records of the Thorne family’s original inheritances. Someone had raised a question about them after four years of silence.

He intended to find out who.

But first, he needed to know what the family had actually left behind.

Because if the Thorne family had once been powerful enough to stand above nearly everyone else in the country, its sudden collapse deserved more than a few lines in an old record.

And if those secret inheritances still existed, Damon wanted to know where they were.

After all, he was Damon Thorne now.

And whatever the Thorne family had left behind belonged to him.