Time-Limited Love: A Contract Expired, Not Renewed novel Chapter 300

“How did you know I was here?”

Zinnia frowned, her tone sharp. Instinctively, she nudged Dapper’s stroller behind her, putting herself between Landon and the little French bulldog. Her eyes were wary, openly distrustful.

Her movement was subtle, but Landon caught it all the same.

A flicker of pain flashed in his eyes.

Dapper, on the other hand, recognized Landon instantly. He propped his front paws on the edge of the stroller, tongue lolling out as he wagged his tail, delighted.

Landon forced a thin smile and reached to scratch Dapper’s head, but Zinnia reacted on reflex, pushing his hand away.

“What are you doing?”

Her gaze turned icy, sharp as glass.

She looked like a cornered cat, bristling and ready to lash out. The sight tore into Landon, as if a thousand tiny needles were pricking his chest.

He looked up at her, giving a bitter smile. “Are you afraid I’d hurt Dapper?”

He knew the answer before he even asked, but humiliation compelled him to say it aloud.

Zinnia didn’t reply, but her expression was answer enough.

“My reputation with you is really that bad now?” His voice wavered, the rims of his eyes tinged red as his lips trembled.

Ever since she’d learned from Noelle that it was Landon who’d helped Rosalie take down that cruel video of Dapper, Zinnia hadn’t been able to muster even the barest civility toward him.

Every time she saw him, all she could picture was his smug face, so proud of shielding the guilty.

Any hope for a clean break had been washed away, over and over.

“Wasn’t it spelled out in Mr. Ford’s contract? Neither party is to interfere in the other’s personal affairs. So, Mr. Ford, I’d appreciate it if you stayed out of mine.”

Landon opened his mouth, but his throat was so dry he couldn’t make a sound.

Right now, all he could think about was going back three years and slapping his past self for ever drafting that contract.

As Zinnia pushed the door open, Landon grasped her wrist.

She stiffened, her frown deepening as she glanced down at his hand, her voice flat. “Mr. Ford, let go.”

But Landon just stared at her, eyes red, voice trembling. “I texted you. I called. Even if you had something to do, couldn’t you have told me? Do you have any idea how long I waited for you tonight?”

By the end, there was a hint of familiar hurt in his voice—something that made Zinnia’s heart skip, even as she tried to ignore it.