Chapter 92
Issar’s chest constricted.
“I’m not getting remarried. There won’t be anyone else…”
You could join a monastery for all I care, Charlotte cut him off. “We’re both free now. Let’s just with each other well and move on.”
“Move on? With who exactly?”
Zarek’s face instantly flashed in Issac’s mind.
Charlotte let out a soft sigh. “Is it so hard to believe I might be perfectly happy on my own?”
Issac’s aching heart lightened a fraction. “Tor real? You’re planning to stay single? Not looking for another relationship?”
His eyes searched hers anxiously, practically begging for the reassurance he desperately wanted.
Charlotte didn’t give him an answer.
She just offered a gentle smile and said goodbye with quiet dignity. “I need to go. Take care of yourself.”
She turned and walked away.
Graceful but decisive.
Issac took a couple of involuntary steps after her, then stopped himself.
He watched her retreating figure until she got in her car and drove away.
Deep down, he knew she wouldn’t look back, but he couldn’t help hoping she might turn just once, showing some tiny sign that she still cared… but her car disappeared from view without her ever glancing back.
His heart felt completely hollow.
The emptiness crushed him–desperately wanting to hold onto something while knowing with absolute clarity it was gone forever.
He tore his divorce certificate into tiny pieces and dropped them in a nearby trash can.
Charlotte drove home.
She carefully put her divorce certificate away, changed into comfortable clothes, brewed some herbal tea, and perched on a kitchen stool, sipping slowly.
Chapter 92
Her feelings were a complicated mess–like finishing a marathon you weren’t sure you wanted to pun. She felt disoriented, slightly sad, a bit teary, Jon mostly relieved.
It was finally over
She smiled down at her cup and took another sip of the perfectly warm tea
That afternoon.
The police station called to inform her that Evelyn had suddenly fallen ill, apparently offering some kind of seizure. Her lawyers had requested medical release.
Sudden illness?
Right. She would literally do anything to escape consequences.
As Charlotte received this update, Zarek got the same news.
He chose not to intervene, curious to see what other tricks the Granthams might pull. The show was getting
interesting
The Granthams, upon learning Evelyn had stabbed Zarek, had immediately rushed to the hospital, but he refused to see them or accept their frantic apologies.
The Granthams had made themselves a powerful enemy.
Jayden was especially stressed.
He’d been desperately trying to meet with Zarek about the loan situation. Now that his sister had literally stabbed the man, that conversation was even less likely to happen.
The exhausting reality was that no matter how badly Evelyn behaved, the family couldn’t just abandon her,
Having crossed Zarek, the Granthams would lose countless allies in New York. The Woods were probably on his blacklist too. After recent events, both families‘ reputations were in tatters.
If only th
two families had successfully united through marriage, they might have withstood the Weasley influence.
The problem was that Issac still refused to play ball…
At the hospital.
Evelyn lay in bed with her eyes closed.
The Granthamns huddled outside her room, discussing damage control.
During their conversation, Jayden took a call. “Issac and Charlotte finalized their divorce?”
His voice carried into the room, and Evelyn’s eyes snapped open.
Chapter 2
Manic joy spread across her face.
Perfect!!
i
Now Issac could finally marry her legitimately!!
She jumped out of hed, yanking out her IV, but because of the medication she’d taken to fake seizure symptoms, her body was weak. She collapsed to the floor with a thud.
The family heard the noise and rushed in.
Jayden lifted her from the floor and placed her back on the bed, utterly exhausted and irritated. “Can you please just stay put for five freaking minutes?”
“Is it true?” Evelyn clutched his arm, eyes wild with excitement. “Did Issac really get divorced?”
“Even if he did divorce her, he’s not going to marry you. Just let it go already.”
“No!! He’s MINE!! He has to be MINE!!”
“Evelyn, just stop this insanity. If Issac wanted to marry you, he would have agreed last time. If he wouldn’t then, after what you just tried to do to Charlotte…” Jayden took a deep breath to keep from exploding. “Do you honestly think he’ll have anything to do with you now?”
“He WILL marry me! I have a plan! Really, I do! Trust me!” Evelyn was practically bouncing with deranged confidence.
Her absolute certainty made it seem like Issac had already proposed.
Jayden and the other family members exchanged looks of silent horror.
They stared at Evelyn with growing concern… Maybe she really did need serious psychiatric help?
For the rest of the afternoon, Charlotte stewed over the possibility that Evelyn might wriggle out of consequences yet again.
Especially after learning that the man in black was sticking to his story about acting alone.
Police investigation confirmed he and Evelyn were indeed friends, and he appeared to have an obsessive crush on her. Their message history contained no direct instructions from Evelyn, and no money had changed hands
Just Evelyn’s complaints and manipulative hints dropped between the lines.
Although Charlotte knew with absolute certainty that Evelyn was the mastermind, they had been alone during the critical conversation. Without a recording, there was no proof.
Charlotte skipped dinner entirely.
She couldn’t eat.
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Chapter
Thinking Zarek might have been discharged, she wanted to check on
She picked up her phone, almost dialing his number, then though heter of it and called mer!
Liam confirmed that Zarek had been discharged that afternoon and we nog is ge
Charlotte immediately brightened. “I’ll come up now Noricing it was almost won the added that or to
late?
“Not at all, come right up.” Liam readily agreed.
He granted her permanent access to the penthouse floor
Twenty minutes later.
Charlotte arrived carrying a large bag of fresh fruit.
She’d stopped specially to buy it
A hospital visit required a gift, after all.
Liam had been waiting and eyed the fruit bag with amusement. “You didn’t need to bring anything You’re hardly a stranger around here.”
Charlotte smiled. “Where is he?
Liam pointed down the left hallway. “In his bedroom Middle door on the right. Go ahead–I’ll put this in the
kitchen.”
Charlotte: “Thanks”
She handed him the fruit and headed down the hallway.
It was only after knocking and entering seeing Zarek reclining against the headboard in a deep blue robe. surrounded by his distinctly masculine space, that she realized being alone with him in his bedroom might be a bit inappropriate.
She started to close the door, then changed her mind and left it wide open.
“Close it.”
His cool voice came from the bed.
Charlotte hesitated for a second, then quickly said. “Oh,” and closed the door.
C
