Chapter 94 : The Heir and the Earthquake

Nicky Saint-Claire had been summoned.

That was the only way to describe it. A courier had shown up at his building with a wax-sealed envelope like it was still the 1800s, addressed in his grandfather's heavy, looping script.

Family meeting. Attendance expected.

Now, he stood in the great hall of the Saint-Claire estate, leather floors polished to mirror, windows tall enough to catch storms. Everything smelled like old wood and older money.

His cousins had arrived first, already circling like sharks in couture. Antoinette. Marc. Andrei. They barely looked at him. One of them muttered, "Well. Look who decided to return."

He ignored it.

Marc, strangely, gave him a faint nod across the room. "Well, at least the dinners won't be boring anymore," he said with a crooked smile. Whether it was genuine or mocking, Nicky couldn't tell—and didn't care enough to ask.