His Wicked Obsession (Archer and Virginia) novel Chapter 221

Virginia Caldwell frowned, refusing to take the envelope.

"I never married Chloe!" Archer Vanderbilt spoke up, his voice hoarse and laced with desperate urgency. "There is no marriage certificate, no legal tie between us. And Toby isn't my biological son. All the proof is right here in this bag."

Her breath caught for a second, her mind going completely blank.

She lowered her gaze to the paper bag, staring at it for a few moments before looking back up in a daze.

"So what?" she asked.

"So?" Archer frowned, pressing the bag into her arms. "So, legally speaking, I've only been married once. And it was to you."

Virginia didn't reach out to take it, simply standing there with a calm expression.

"Archer, this doesn't change anything."

"I just want you to give me a fair chance to win you back."

The words came out stiffly and awkwardly, carrying the raw desperation of a powerful man finally bowing his head.

Virginia looked at him.

The man before her had been raised on strict rules and rigid discipline, standing tall and straight in the warm summer night with a perfectly knotted tie and polished leather shoes.

Yet the knuckles of the hand holding the paper bag out to her were completely white from the strain.

"It's too late. I need to go inside."

She stepped around him, walking straight into her apartment building without looking back.

It was impossible to say she felt absolutely nothing, but they had missed out on too much. There was no going back.

Archer stood there for a long time, his hand still extended in the air.

Only after the lobby doors opened and closed, and the sensor lights flickered on and faded to black, did he slowly lower his arm, gripping the bag tightly as he got back into his car.

Zachary Cole swallowed hard, asking cautiously, "Mr. Vanderbilt, where to now?"

"Take me home."

The Maybach roared to life, disappearing into the dark night.

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