The Contract Said No Strings Attached (Charlotte) novel Chapter 229

Rebecca stepped out of the office as dusk settled over the city, exhaustion dragging at her every step. All she wanted was to get home, kick off her heels, and let the day melt away. She never expected to find herself being followed.

As she walked down the quiet sidewalk, an uneasy sensation prickled at the back of her neck—a subtle but unmistakable awareness that someone’s eyes were locked on her. Her nerves instantly went taut.

Rebecca slowed her pace, heart thudding, every sense now alert. Who could it be? Was it Fitch back to hassle her again, or someone else with an agenda? Her curiosity warred with apprehension as she kept moving, pretending nothing was amiss while scanning her surroundings through the corner of her eye.

But aside from the occasional passerby—an elderly couple, a man walking his dog—she saw nothing unusual. Still, the feeling of being watched grew stronger, settling in her gut like a stone. Her mind raced through wild possibilities, desperate to unmask whoever was trailing her.

Elsewhere, four little boys huddled together in a dimly lit room, their faces tense with concentration as they listened to a faint stream of static and muffled voices through a wiretap device perched on the table. The silence in the room was broken only by the soft hum of electronics and the sound of their anxious breathing.

Suddenly, panic flashed across Noah’s face. “Something’s wrong!” he blurted out, hands trembling.

The other three boys tensed. Ethan shot him a worried look. “What happened?”

Noah’s brow furrowed, and he spoke in a hurried whisper, “I just heard something—they’re planning to hurt Mom!”

Aiden and Evan’s eyes went wide with fear as they turned to Noah for clarification.

Ethan didn’t hesitate. “We have to go. Now.”

With that, he bolted for the door, yelling for the driver. “Louis! Louis, come quick!”

Louis came running, alarmed by Ethan’s urgent call. “What’s going on, Master Ethan?”

“Please, start the car! We need to find Mom—hurry!” Ethan insisted, breathless.

In a shadowed alley a few blocks away, Emily watched Rebecca’s silhouette disappear into the evening. Malice flickered in her eyes.

She wasn’t alone; three burly men stood behind her, hired through shady back channels for a price. Emily’s lips twisted into a cruel sneer as she addressed them. “You heard me. Follow that woman. When she gets to a quiet spot, knock her out and haul her to the outskirts.”

The men exchanged greedy glances, visions of easy money dancing in their heads.

One of them asked, “And then?”

Emily’s expression darkened, her voice low and vicious. “Then ruin her pretty face. I want her so disfigured she’ll never dare show herself in public again.”

The thugs hesitated for a split second, glancing at each other uneasily. They’d done plenty of dirty work before, but this—this was a new low, even for them.