After dinner, Jasmine casually mentioned that Thorne was out of town for business, which came as news to Charlene.

Around nine in the evening, Charlene was taking a shower when her phone, left on the bed, started ringing.

Jasmine glanced at the screen and saw it was Granger Harden calling. She picked up the phone and answered, “Granger.”

Hearing Jasmine’s voice, Granger paused for a moment before responding, “Minnie.”

Before Jasmine could say anything else, Charlene walked out of the bathroom. Jasmine handed her the phone, saying, “Mom, it’s Granger.”

“Okay,” Charlene said, taking the phone. Before she could speak, Granger said, “Am I interrupting?” Charlene replied, “Not at all.”

Granger continued, “I’m out of town right now. We’ll have to reschedule our dinner for another time.” Charlene responded, “That’s fine.”

After hanging up, Charlene was about to blow dry her hair when she caught Jasmine giving her a curious look.

Charlene asked, “What’s up?”

“Mom, you know Granger too?”

Charlene nodded, “Yeah.”

“Oh…”

The next morning, Charlene went downstairs to make breakfast.

About half an hour later, as she was heading back upstairs, she saw Jasmine on the phone. Jasmine ran over to her and handed her the phone, “Mom, it’s Dad.”

Charlene took the phone and asked, “What’s up?”

Thorne said, “I won’t be back until Wednesday at the earliest. Minnie will probably want to stay with the Ross family until then, so I appreciate you looking after her these next few days.”

Charlene listened quietly, then hung up the phone after the call.

On Monday, after dropping Jasmine off at school, Charlene headed to work.

With a project deadline looming, she was incredibly busy that week, often staying late into the night to finish, her work Because of this, even

though Jasmine was staying net

the Rosses, Charlene only had time to chat with her briefly in the mornings.

By Thursday afternoon, Jasmine called to let her know Thorne was back.

After school that day, Jasmine went straight back to the Henderson family.

On Saturday, Charlene met up with Granger and Daisy at the amusement park.

Upon seeing Charlene, Granger remarked, “It’s been a while since we last saw each other.”

“Has it?” Charlene replied, not having noticed the time passing.

Granger looked like he had

something on his mind, but he didn’t say anything until it was nearly lunchtime. Hesitantly, he said, “You know. Neural Nexus Tech has several shareholders, right?”

Charlene nodded, “Yeah.”

“Thorne plans to buy out the shares from me and Moran and give them to—”

Granger didn’t finish his sentence, but Charlene knew he was referring to Vesta.

She was well aware of how indulgent Thorne had been towards Vesta at Neural Nexus Tech.

She had once joked that she wouldn’t be surprised if Thorne let Vesta take over the company entirely. But she never thought he’d actually do it…

Even as a new company, Neural Nexus Tech was worth billions, and Thorne was just handing it over so easily.

Granger then added, “Moran and I agreed to it.”

Charlene simply said, “I see.”

Granger, Moran, and Thorne had

been close friends since they were kids, practically inseparable. Given their bend, Charlene understood why they would agree when Thorne asked.

Granger wanted to give Charlene the heads up that things were shaking up at Neural Nexus Tech, even though they were still teamed up with PrimeStar Technologies…

Granger knew how much she loved Thorne.

Before understanding her connection with Stewart Ferguson, he genuinely thought she’d moved on from Thorne.

Now, however, he wasn’t sure if she’d truly let go.