The lost heiress never forgiven

The Lost Heiress 278

Chapter 278 No Room to Negotiate

Johnathan paused, then let out a quiet laugh.

“You’ve learned how to play the game, huh?”

He had asked her a direct question about Shane, but she’d changed the subject and brought up last night instead–using guilt to shift the balance in her favor. It was a clever negotiating move.

Caught red–handed, Sierra looked away a little guiltily, but she still didn’t budge. “Promise me first.”

Johnathan tapped his fingers rhythmically on the steering wheel. Negotiating with her was new, and honestly kind of funny, He played along.

“The second thing? Sure. But the first one? No.”

Sierra opened her mouth to argue, but he cut her off. “Not even if I’m dead”

So that was a hard no,

She pressed her lips together. “Then no separate rooms–but you’re not allowed to do what you did last night again. That’s my bottom line. Non–negotiable.”

She threw his own words back at him, which made Johnathan laugh despite himself. He’d been irritated about the whole Shane situation, but that little deflection actually made the frustration ease off a bit.

“Alright, I agree. Now can we talk about Shane?”

She knew there was no dodging it, but at least the fire in his eyes had cooled. She took a breath and told him about Shane’s last visit to the university.

She left out the part about the flowers, but Johnathan wasn’t fooled.

asked. “He didn’t reach

no choice but to tell

Johnathan just laughed–angrily.

if I hadn’t asked, you weren’t

about. The guy’s insane. He only did it to mess with us.” Sierra clearly

didn’t respond. He just

this up once before. Inside, if someone had even a hint of attractiveness, they’d be targeted–unless they had someone protecting them. Sierra had been bullied, yes, but she’d never been

recent. Maddox had dug up records showing this kind of thing had been going on for years.

protecting Sierra all along. It wasn’t the Xander family. They’d never lift a finger for

only person who might’ve had the reach–and the twisted enough logic–to do it, was

her any of this. He wasn’t about to defend another man in

now, knowing who Johnathan was and what Sierra meant to him, he

wonder everyone in Capital City got weird when Shane’s

Johnathan said. “Leave it to me. He

3:01 PM C

No

it going to

“No.”

for Sierra. She

Ο

E

If she kept asking, she’d just be

thing was

clearly

keep his word–not a single visible mark. But the invisible