Delete My Love for You novel Chapter 17

Thud—thud—thud—

The dull sound of her forehead pounding against the floor echoed through the room, as if a funeral bell was tolling.

Charlotte moved mechanically, repeating the motion again and again. Her skin split open above her brow, and hot blood mingled with cold tears, blurring her vision until all she could see was a red, watery haze.

Waves of dizziness crashed over her. Each time she tried to lift her head, the effort was almost unbearable, but the only thing keeping her going was the heart-wrenching sound of her son’s sobs.

After the hundredth time, she summoned the last of her strength and grabbed her phone. Her lips were bitten through, her voice trembling but determined. “That’s a hundred—I’ve done it… Darren…”

A woman’s voice answered, smooth and unhurried. “Well, I’m so sorry, Mrs. Harrington.”

Xena’s words snapped the last thread holding Charlotte together. “Mr. Harrington still doesn’t want to come back.”

Click—the call was cut off without mercy.

Charlotte’s bloodshot eyes shrank with shock. In the ringing silence, all she could hear was Noah’s broken, desperate wail: “Dad! Dad! Please, I want Dad!”

“Darren… don’t do this… you can’t…”

She whispered the words, blood and tears tracing messy paths down her cheeks. Her fingers, refusing to give up, dialed the number again, but this time only the cold, mechanical busy tone answered her.

Whatever strength she had left drained from her body.

Darkness closed in, and she collapsed heavily to the floor.

Just before losing consciousness, she felt herself wrapped in a warm embrace.

A man’s voice lingered at the edge of her awareness: “Charlotte… just walk away. Don’t make me… do worse to you…”

The voice was low and magnetic, uncannily like Darren’s from twelve years ago.

But then, she was pulled into a nightmare.

In her dream, her son’s sharp cries coiled around her like thorns: “I don’t want Mom! I only want Dad!”

Even at his most helpless, her son had chosen—without hesitation—to reject her love.

The child she’d risked her life to protect, the one she’d carried for nine long months, had become a stranger, casting her into endless darkness.

She’d been wrong all along…

She should never have reached for things that were never hers.

Darren—she should never have wanted him.

Noah’s custody—she should never have fought for that, either.

Let it all suffocate and fade away behind her.

Charlotte felt like an empty shell, a ghost without a soul. She turned and walked away, stiff and numb, leaving nothing behind outside the nursery but a chill in the air—and the hollow echo of her broken heart.