From Ashes of Scandal to His Embrace (Laurinda) novel Chapter 44

Laurinda drew in a long breath, steadying herself. From the look on York’s face, it was clear he’d already pieced together what happened.

She slipped into her room, grabbed a jacket, and went out to the little balcony. Settling into a chair, she glanced at York.

“Okay, tell me everything.”

York saw she was ready to listen and made himself comfortable on the couch.

“It was honestly just a big mess. Graham was the one who drugged Adelaide. His plan was to use her to get close to the Baker family, but for some reason, the people who came to pick her up were working for Aiken. Not what he expected at all.”

“Graham got her out the back door, then went to grab his stuff and left through the front. When he came out, Adelaide was already gone. He thought she’d woken up and escaped, so he just left, figuring the whole plan had fallen apart.”

“He didn’t realize Adelaide had actually been taken to the room he’d set up in advance. Reporters showed up, just like he arranged, but the guy in the room ended up being Aiken. The whole thing flipped on him without him even knowing.”

York shook his head, clearly unimpressed with Graham’s scheme. All that effort, and he still managed to lose control of the situation. If nothing else, Laurinda thought, Adelaide would probably have been safer with Graham than with Aiken.

Laurinda scrolled through the trending topics on her phone, frustration written all over her face. She sat there quietly for a moment, then finally asked, “What happens now? Why hasn’t the news been taken down? Isn’t the Baker family doing anything about it?”

“It’s not that they aren’t trying, but this story is huge. It’s everywhere, and someone’s pushing it behind the scenes. Cleaning it up is almost impossible.”

“Adelaide’s family already took her home. The head of the Baker family is planning to press charges against Aiken for rape. What comes next… who knows.”

At the Gates family house, Finn was raging at Fabian in the study. He was gripping an ashtray so tightly it looked like he wanted to throw it at his son’s head.

Just yesterday, he’d agreed to Fabian’s engagement to Laura. Now, the Austin family was caught in a scandal that was blowing up everywhere.

“I told you to have Aiken handle Laurinda. Not only did you fail, but now he’s made everything ten times worse. What exactly happened? Do you realize the Baker family has been waiting for a chance to take us down? If they find out about you and Laura, they’ll make it public and drag the Gates family through the mud.”

“The Austin family is falling apart. I don’t want the Gates Group to get dragged down with them. You need to break up with Laura.”

Finn had already made up his mind. As much as he wanted the Austin family’s secret research, he wasn’t about to risk the Gates Group for it.