Shattered Vows: Call Me Auntie Now novel Chapter 49

Dante's gaze slashed sharply between the two of them. "Is he really just your bodyguard, or is there something else going on here?"

"You've been stringing your precious first love along for years. You have no right to ask me a question like that," Quinn shot back.

Dante choked on his words, caught entirely off guard.

Raymond narrowed his eyes at Dante. "Mr. Hayes, I suggest you leave."

Dante roared at him, "This is none of your damn business! You're a bodyguard! You have no right to interfere with my marriage! Back off!"

The frost in Raymond's eyes grew deadlier.

"First, she doesn't want to see you.

Second, don't you ever lay a hand on her again.

Third, to her, I am not a nobody. Protecting her is my duty."

Staring into Raymond's fathomless eyes—which carried an authoritative dominance that entirely rivaled his own—Dante felt an inexplicable shudder. A visceral sense of danger washed over him.

He suddenly locked his vicious gaze onto Quinn, his eyes brimming with indignant fury.

"Quinn, are you seriously going to treat me like this over a total stranger?"

Standing beside Raymond, Quinn delivered the final, fatal blow in an utterly apathetic tone:

"He's not a stranger."

A sharp pain pierced Dante's chest. "Quinn!"

Raymond smoothly shielded Quinn behind him, his voice devoid of a single degree of warmth:

"Leave, Mr. Hayes."

"If you stick around any longer, I'll have you arrested for harassment."

Dante glared at the two of them, watching Raymond's fiercely protective stance.

Seeing nothing but sheer disgust and apathy in Quinn's eyes, a slow, agonizing wave of panic began to set in.

"Offer more money. Keep raising the price until he agrees to sell."

"Understood!"

Hanging up the phone, Dante leaned back against the leather seat and closed his eyes.

He remembered Quinn telling him once about her childhood trips to Sapphire Lake with her mother.

Sapphire Lake was like a crystal mirror, perpetually cloaked in a faint morning mist, as breathtaking as an ink-wash painting.

She had told him her biggest dream was to fulfill her mother's dying wish: opening a design studio right by the lake, where she could find total peace and focus on her art.

He had originally planned to buy the property and gift it to her for her birthday.

But now, securing it felt infinitely more urgent.

Let Vivienne have the east-side studio. He was going to give the Sapphire Lake estate to Quinn as her brand-new workspace.

Once she was thrilled with the gift, she would undoubtedly move right back into Belvedere Gardens.