Delete My Love for You novel Chapter 222

“You two go ahead and do whatever you want. I won’t interfere, because I have my own life to deal with.”

“And please, don’t feel guilty on my account. From the start, this has always been an arrangement of mutual convenience. If you don’t mind, let’s keep things as they are. After all, this marriage certificate makes a perfect shield against a certain mad dog sniffing around.”

Charlotte spoke with icy composure, wiping away the last traces of tears from the corners of her eyes. In the next instant, she looked utterly unruffled, as if nothing at all had happened.

A shadow flickered through Bradley’s gaze, the gray of his eyes deepening.

He glanced at Ryan in the back seat.

Ryan just shook his head, signaling that he was as lost as Bradley was.

It wasn’t until deep into the night, after a long-distance call to Herbert overseas, that Bradley finally uncovered a shocking secret. The revelation hit him like a sledgehammer to the chest.

The only woman he had ever truly cared for, the one he’d once dreamed of protecting for the rest of his life—she had already cut herself off from love and hope. She would never love him. She wouldn’t love Darren, either.

Bradley had taken Darren’s pride, stripped the Harrington family of their most prized scientific legacy, and swept away everything Darren once held dear. He’d thought that meant victory.

But now, realizing Charlotte would never love him, Bradley finally understood—he had lost, and lost completely.

…

Elsewhere, Darren sat in numbed silence at his son Noah’s bedside, spending the entire night in that chair. His wounds had only been hastily tended to.

He held Noah’s small, warm hand in his own and couldn’t stop replaying Charlotte’s departure in his mind, along with those harsh, bitter words that still rang in his ears:

“You left the mother of your child alone in the delivery room, Darren? You tore her away from her own flesh and blood, forced her child to call another woman ‘Mom’? Darren, you should’ve disappeared from Lotty’s life long ago!”

“Darren, I stopped having a home a long time ago.”

“To me, any place with you in it is nothing but a living hell.”

Every word struck him like a hammer, pounding his already shattered heart.

“Darren?”

A gentle female voice called from the doorway.

She nodded shyly. “Okay. I’ll do whatever you say.”

Darren led her out of the hospital.

All the way there, Xena failed to notice the danger simmering beneath the surface of the man beside her.

The car pulled up in front of an apartment building Xena had never visited before. They rode the elevator in silence, stopping at the door to an unremarkable apartment.

A bodyguard stationed at the door greeted them respectfully and opened it.

Darren strode into the living room, peeling off his bloodstained jacket and tossing it carelessly onto the couch.

Xena looked around, confused by the ordinary surroundings. “Darren, where are we?”

“Xena…”

He sank onto the sofa, reclining back, his dark eyes glinting with menace as he fixed her with a look that sent a chill down her spine. His voice was icy, each word sharper than the last. “So, tell me—have you enjoyed pretending to be my Shortie all these years?”