She Left She Thrived She’s Worth Billions novel Chapter 704

"He's a bodyguard hired by my boyfriend."

Shawn easily detected the immense pride and absolute security in Melanie's voice.

No wonder she had looked slightly less guarded around him this time—she had known someone was lurking in the shadows, keeping her safe.

"Your boyfriend is that paranoid about you? Are you sure he's protecting you, and not just monitoring you?"

With one casual sentence, Shawn masterfully tried to twist Preston's protective intentions into something sinister. Philip opened his mouth, ready to fiercely defend his boss, but Melanie smoothly fired back with absolute poise.

"I'm perfectly happy letting my boyfriend monitor me. It's a little kink we share. Mind your own business, Mr. Sterling."

With that devastating shutdown, she slid safely into the back of her car while Philip stood guard.

Shawn was left standing utterly alone on the pavement, a solitary figure in the fading light.

After a long moment, a slow chuckle escaped his lips.

Why was nothing going according to plan?

He had been so sure that swooping in to save her from her ex-husband's harassment would make her view him in a totally different light.

He never expected...

"Did I just shoot myself in the foot?"

Shawn muttered to himself.

Pulling out his phone, he opened the camera app and checked his reflection using the front-facing lens.

"I still look pretty damn good."

Was it just that Melanie didn't like younger guys?

Shawn clicked the screen off.

The reflection staring back at him from the darkened glass looked infinitely more sinister and cold than the cheerful face in the camera just seconds before.

Over the next few days, Melanie's life and work fell back into a peaceful rhythm.

True, Dominic had crawled out of the ashes to become the Lockridge family's golden boy, reclaiming his status in high society.

But he had a girlfriend now, which meant he wouldn't be terrorizing her anymore.

After hitting a brick wall with Philip, Shawn had also noticeably backed off.

Or, more likely, he was just swamped with preparations for the Medicinal Gastronomy Championship.

Since Everett had returned from his leave, Melanie officially handed all the Championship-related duties over to him in his capacity as COO.

The clinical data for the VitalBreath Fortis trials from four years ago was sitting right on his hard drive.

Just as Melanie was racking her brain trying to figure out how to lure Lawrence away from his desk, his landline suddenly rang.

"Yes, yes, I'll be right there."

Hanging up the receiver, Lawrence looked up at Melanie with an apologetic smile.

"I'm so sorry, Ms. Royce. Something urgent just came up. I'll help you pull those files as soon as I get back."

With that, Lawrence locked his computer screen and hurried away from his workstation.

In that exact moment, the massive data room was completely empty—

Except for Melanie.

There were security cameras, of course.

But they were positioned far away and angled to monitor the aisles, not the individual computer screens.

Melanie wasn't about to let a golden opportunity like this slip through her fingers.

She typed in the password and instantly bypassed the lock screen.