Delete My Love for You novel Chapter 47

Xena’s lips trembled. “Mr. Harrington, please, you have to listen to me. This isn’t what it looks like, I—”

“That’s enough.”

Darren cut her off. His voice was low, but it carried a weight that brooked no argument.

He shifted his steely gaze to the five men cowering on the floor. “Say it again, right here, in front of me. Was it Ms. Lancaster who put you up to this?”

Each word fell like a stone, heavy and inescapable.

The men shrank back under Darren’s icy stare, tripping over themselves to recant their accusations.

“No! No one told us to do anything!”

“It was just… we weren’t thinking straight. Saw her alone and got… ideas. This has nothing to do with Ms. Lancaster!”

Charlotte pressed her lips together. With Darren bearing down on them, these men would say black was white if he demanded it.

Darren’s tone was glacial. “Take them to the station. All of them.”

His other bodyguards stepped in, and one of them took the rope from Charlotte’s hands.

As the coarse rope slipped out of her grasp, Darren’s reprimand rang out sharply.

“Lottie, don’t forget your place.”

“You are Xena’s bodyguard. Your first and only job is to protect her and meet her needs—not to listen to the accusations of desperate criminals and turn against her.”

Charlotte’s fingers tightened almost imperceptibly.

Did Darren really not see through this charade?

Of course, he did. But he chose to ignore it, siding with Xena, right or wrong.

Charlotte’s voice was quiet. “Mr. Harrington, trust is everything. If you can’t trust me, perhaps I should—”

“Lottie.” Darren’s voice was suddenly dangerous, cutting her off. “You were personally recommended by Mr. Nelson. And you’re the best there is with a blade. Xena needs a female bodyguard, and you’re the only one up to the job.”

Best with a blade?

It all detonated in the most fragile, unguarded corner of Charlotte’s soul.

She looked up at Darren again.

She watched as he gently wiped the panic tears from Xena’s face, and a sharp ache twisted inside her chest—something dangerously close to falling apart.

She spun around abruptly, hiding her trembling hands as she fished a white pill from her pocket and swallowed it dry.

When she turned back to face Darren and Xena, her expression was once again unreadable.

But the mystery of “Shortie” refused to let her go.

Later that evening, Charlotte found a moment alone with the chatty housekeeper and feigned curiosity. “Mr. Harrington certainly treats Ms. Lancaster well. Heard he even helped her pick out a wedding dress today—and knelt down to help her with her shoes.”

The housekeeper snorted. “That’s nothing! You have no idea—Mr. Harrington’s been in love with Ms. Lancaster for fourteen years!”

“Ms. Lancaster had a rough start, you know. Grew up in an orphanage, ended up sold abroad. Mr. Harrington was the one who saved her!”

“Don’t go spreading that around, though. I only know because he let it slip once when he was drunk!”