Shattered Vows: Call Me Auntie Now novel Chapter 63

Vivienne watched Dante walk toward Quinn, the color draining slightly from her face.

On the other side of the room, the bespectacled clerk was flushed red with humiliation and fury from the relentless argument.

He slammed his meaty palm against the desk. "Enough! I don't want to hear another word. I am reviewing applications strictly by the book. If you keep causing a scene, I will have security escort you out."

A few people further back in line started groaning impatiently.

"If you're disqualified, just leave! Don't hold up the rest of us."

"Exactly. She's been holding up the line forever."

Ignoring the complaints entirely, Quinn leveled a hard stare at the clerk.

"I still have the official exoneration documents from the university and the arbitration board. If you need them, I can bring them right here for verification."

"And once they prove my innocence, I will be speaking to the head of this competition regarding your baseless slander and deliberate obstruction."

The clerk looked completely unbothered, his tone dripping with malice. "Appeal all you want. By the time you jump through those hoops, the registration window will be closed anyway."

He was making it glaringly obvious that he was intentionally blocking her path.

Quinn's stomach dropped slightly.

Just then, a tall figure strode over.

With his broad shoulders and commanding presence, the crowd instinctively parted to let him through.

Dante stopped next to Quinn, glaring down at the clerk.

"What seems to be the problem here?"

Raymond emerged from the stairwell clutching his phone, immediately spotting Dante standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Quinn.

The previously arrogant clerk jolted upward the second he recognized Dante, his face draining of all color.

"Mr. Hayes... what brings you here?"

Of course he knew who Dante Hayes was.

Dante was Riverton's top young entrepreneur, a permanent fixture in financial magazines, and a regular on the social media trending charts.

Hayes Heritage, under the Hayes Group umbrella, was the leading apparel brand in the country and a major sponsor of this very competition.

Even the senior committee members had to kiss the Hayes family's ring. A lowly supervisor like him could never afford to offend this man.

Dante's brow lowered, his natural authority suffocating the space. "Give me the reason you blocked her registration."

Hearing that, Quinn felt a strange, unnamable flutter in her chest, genuinely shocked that he was actually defending her.

She couldn't even remember how many years it had been since he last stood up for her like this.

It had been so long that right now, his defense just felt entirely unnecessary.

"Dante, I really don't need you playing the hero here."

Dante shot her a quick glance before returning his focus to the clerk. "That plagiarism incident back then was actually..."

Right in the middle of his sentence, a sudden commotion erupted from the crowd.

Someone shouted, "Oh my god, Vivienne just passed out!"

Dante's expression shifted instantly. Abandoning his confrontation with the organizers and completely ignoring Quinn's icy stare, he spun around and sprinted toward the collapsed woman.

Quinn watched his frantic, retreating figure, her fingertips growing cold.

Once again, Dante had abandoned her for Vivienne.

But she quickly reined in her emotions.

So what if his eyes were only ever on Vivienne? She was already perfectly used to it.