Time-Limited Love: A Contract Expired, Not Renewed novel Chapter 227

“After the police took you away last night, your father and I started calling in every favor we could think of, trying to get you out. But the police wouldn’t budge. We even tried calling Landon, but he wouldn’t pick up. Your mother was furious and worried sick about how you were holding up in that cell. So when she saw that dog, well...”

Rosalie recounted everything that had happened the previous night to Noelle.

“I had no idea that mutt belonged to that snake, Zinnia. It never crossed my mind that someone would film it and post it online. What am I going to do? Do you think Landon will go after me for Zinnia’s sake?”

The more Rosalie thought about it, the more anxious she became. She buried her face in her hands and started to sob.

“Whose dog? And what does Landon have to do with any of this?” Noelle was exhausted after a night in the holding cell. After she got home, she’d taken a long, hot shower and finally got some sleep. She’d only just woken up and had no idea what was happening online. She frowned, confused by Rosalie’s panicked words.

Rosalie handed her the phone. “See for yourself.”

Noelle took the phone, and after only a minute of scrolling through the feed, her face twisted with anger.

“Oh, so now the dog’s being called his ‘brother-in-law’? Is Landon planning to announce to the world that Zinnia is his wife?”

Juniper looked up, her gaze falling on her daughter.

For a moment, she realized that unless something involved Landon, nothing else seemed to matter to Noelle. Even now, with her mother panicking over the possibility of Landon retaliating, Noelle’s only concern was the petty title of “brother-in-law.”

Juniper’s eyes grew cold. Her voice was low and sharp.

“So what? Zinnia *is* his wife. Even if he doesn’t make it official, it’s not your place to interfere. What do you think all this fussing will get you?”

Juniper’s words stunned Noelle for a moment.

A flicker of resentment flashed in Noelle’s eyes as she snapped, “Dad, what are you talking about? If I hadn’t been overseas and Zinnia hadn’t wormed her way in, do you really think she’d be the lady of the Ford Group right now?”

She grabbed her phone, searching for the video with every keyword she could think of, but found nothing. It had been scrubbed clean. Just to be sure, she tried to re-upload the video she’d saved on her phone, but the second she hit upload, it was instantly deleted.

Rosalie’s eyes lit up with sudden hope. “It really is gone! Who could’ve helped us like this?”

Noelle arched an eyebrow, a smug smile on her lips. “Who else could pull something like this off? It has to be Landon.”

“Come on, Mom. Besides Landon, who else do we know who has the power to wipe every trace of a video from the internet in no time?”

“And anyway, the footage is so blurry, no one else would have recognized you or Dad. But Landon knows us—he must have spotted you right away and made sure the video disappeared.”

The more Noelle thought about it, the more convinced she became, her eyes shining with excitement.

“I knew it—Landon still cares about me. He didn’t come to get me yesterday because that witch Zinnia must have done something to stop him.”