Chapter 4
Charlotte stared at This, a bitter smile playing at her lips while something ice cold settled in her chest. The sheer audacity of his request left her momentarily sprechlen.
“Are you kidding me right now?” Her voice came out quiet, almost hollong. “I’m not your lovesick puppy anymore, Eles. You don’t have to keep finding creative new ways to break me.||
She walked out before he could respond, her back straight despite the trembling in her hands, fehind her. Elias stood frozen, genuinely blindsided by both her words and the unfamiliar emptiness in her eyes.
Charlotte took an Uber to campurs, desperate to finalize her Peace Corps paperwork and escape this nightmare. As she left the international programs office, the atmosphere around her shifted. Heads turned. Whispers followed. Some prople didn’t even bother to lower their voices as she passed
Guess the rich really do play by different rules, somente said loudly.
“Alwans the quiet, bookish ones who are freaks behind closed doors, mother voice added.]
I’m totally calling my next romance novel The Billionaire’s Plaything a girl announced to her laughing friends.
Before Charlotte could process what was happening, her roommate came sprinting across the quad, face flushed with panic.]]
Juttel Oh my God–your phone–check Twitter now?
With a growing sense of dread, Charlotte pulled out her phone. There it was, trending nationwide: “Delaney Heir’s Forbidden Romance Exposed-
Her fingers felt numb as the clicked the link. A video appeared–faces partially blurred but still recognizable–depicting her and Elias in an explicit encounter. Het stomach burched violently.
This is completely face,” she whispered, rage and humiliation burning behind her eyes.
Fi. This neve
never happened!“]
kasow that her roommate said hercely, grapping her arm. This has calculated attack written all over it. You need to find whoever did this and destroy them]
Charlotte immediately headed back to the mansion, her mind rating. She needed to talk to Ellas–surely he would help fight this together, regardless of their personal issues. As she rushed up the front steps, the found him waiting at the top of the grand staircase, his face contorted with dispast and fury
– this is
not interested jnymore‘ looks like? be snarled, his voice vibrating with barely controlled rage. “You’d really go this far? Faking a sex tape to foror my hand before my wedding?1
The accusation hit Chartone like a physical low. “You think I did this?” she whispered, the betrayal cutting so deep she could barely breathe
This mistook her shock for gut. A crued smile twisted his lips as he stepped closer, towering ovoker:[]
If you think this pathetic stunt will force e lo marry you, you’ve seriously miscalculated,” he said, each word precise and venomous. I will never do you understand 2017– never marry anyone int scarlett. Not in dus lifetimes or any other. ||
As he finished speaking, Charlotte realized Scarlett had appeared behind him her face a perfect mask of wounded innocence that didn’t reach her calculating
sume dignity. This desperate
“ul, Corlotte,” Scarlett said, her valor dripping with false sympathy as she descended the stairs. “A woman should have some d aftention seeking is just… honestly, it’s embarrassing to watch.-||
Charlotte opened her musal to defend herself, but lebar she could speak Scarlett moved with surprising speed–subtly but forcefully shoving her backward toward the steep marble staircase with its fifty foot drop |
ne fluid motion, Scarlett twisted her ankle and fell forward with an Oscar worthy cry of pain ||
Elias reacted on pure instinct, lunging to candi Scarlett without a insomments hesitations or thought for anyone clar ||
It was only after he heard the sickening series of thodi behind him that he remembered Charlotte existed
Charlete curled into bene at the bottom of the stairs, biting her knee to keep from streaming as tears stresanes silently down her fare. The pain was everywdiepe, white liot
blanding, Ladiating though her body in waver
waves that direatened to pull her uniter]
Ulast face drained of color as he faced down the stairs “Charice pesus Ch
Christ-
– you okay? For the first time in years, genuine fear for her flashed across
his face ||
