No Divorce? The Billionaire's Love Chase! novel Chapter 452

York stubbornly pushed Peter's hand away and took a pained step toward Claudia.

"I'll handle this," he promised. "I swear, it won't happen again."

Claudia met his gaze with a cold smile.

"Tell me, York," she said. "Why couldn't your grandfather and father touch a nobody like Ann?"

York flinched as if struck, his body swaying violently. Peter rushed to support him.

"My family may be bankrupt," Claudia continued, "but my network of connections is a hundred, a thousand times stronger than Ann's, isn't it?"

She listed them off. "I have the young master of the Sayer family, the third son of the Harvest family, Mr. Cyrus from Grant Manor, the international lawyer Hugh who's on the global rich list, and even the prince..."

"They may have been my patients, but they are also my friends—friends I earned through sincerity. If I asked, they would help me, even against your family."

Her voice was chillingly calm. "So why? Why were your father and grandfather afraid to touch a nobody like Ann, yet they come after my family again and again?"

York didn't want to hear the words she was about to say. He pressed a hand to his chest, panic flashing in his eyes.

"This is all my fault," he said desperately. "I promise I won't let them bother you again. Just trust me one more time."

"Because Ann was the woman you protected with your life," Claudia said, her voice like ice, "and I, Claudia, am the woman you trampled into the dust!"

"Please," York begged, his voice almost a whisper. "I'm begging you, don't say any more."

Darleen, who was in the driver's seat, glanced back at him with concern.

"York, listen to me," Peter said worriedly. "You have to take this one step at a time. You're seriously hurt. What if something happens?"

York leaned his head against the headrest and closed his eyes. "If I die," he said quietly, "just burn me and be done with it."

Claudia's words echoed in his mind. She blamed him. She blamed him for protecting Ann, for letting his family harass her, for even being near her.

He remembered the look in her eyes—empty and utterly hopeless—when she had watched him fight with his grandfather over Ann.

Suddenly, the pain in his heart was so overwhelming that the throbbing in his side seemed to fade into nothing.