chapter2064

"I wanted to wait until the time felt safe," Sven said. "I didn't expect everything to happen so fast."

"If you're truly a Lindberg heir, why did you become Boss' bodyguard?" she asked, still bewildered.

Long seconds passed. "Because I'm an illegitimate son," he finally confessed. "My father named me heir only after discovering my brother can't have children."

Another revelation slammed into her; she gripped the rail as though the night itself tilted.

"That's also why I hid the truth," Sven added. "I feared you would recoil from someone born on the wrong side of a scandal."

The phrase "illegitimate child" had cut him like glass his entire life.

The Lindberg household tolerated neither his mother nor the boy she bore.

Survival had meant living on the blade's edge, exchanging fists and favors in alleyways most heirs never see.

Fortune shifted when he met Calvin, then Cecilia; working as their bodyguard gave him years of rare, uncomplicated peace.

Perhaps that peace lulled him; returning home, he nearly mistook his brother's polished smile for affection and almost paid with his life.

Charlotte could hardly fathom that he had kept silent for fear of her judgment.

"Do you honestly think I'm with you for your pedigree?"

On the other end he went quiet, unsure.

"I'll tell you the truth," she barreled on. "I'm a shameless fangirl. I fell for your face, your shoulders-fine, your entire body."

Her guileless admission loosened a knot inside his chest; he laughed, softly, for the first time in weeks.

Maybe that unfiltered honesty was why he had chosen her in the first place.

With Charlotte, all those power struggles dissolved; all that remained was the steady, human pulse of two people believing in each other.

"But—" Charlotte's voice pivoted mid-sentence, the single word hanging in the air like a held breath.

Sven's reply came at once, tight with sudden concern. "But what?"

"But right now, the one who should feel small is me. You're heir to the Lindberg fortune. I'm just a woman working shifts."

She meant every syllable. There were no buried titles trailing after her name-of that she was painfully certain.

On the other end of the call, Sven chuckled an actual, out-loud laugh Charlotte could hear.

Astonishment rippled through her. Sven was normally all sharp lines and sealed lips, a living King of Spades. Newest update provided by FindN0vel.net

"What's so funny?" she asked, half-offended, half-curious.

"Nothing. You're just... adorable," he managed, then

alertched teeth ed through

the laugh hau

tugged cruelly at the sutures in his abdomen.

s

Charlotte caught the hitch in his breath. "Your voice sounds strange. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Sven lied, forcing steadiness into the words.

"So when are you coming back?" She wanted to see that smile in person-and maybe steal a kiss or two.

Sven pressed a palm to the slow-bleeding wound and sighed. "Not yet."

"Why not?"

He scrambled for a passable

excuse "told you, I've just

over the Lindberg family

me."

mountain of affairs waitingy s

At the word affairs, Charlotte remembered his father's death. "Right... I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I'm not sad" His tone stayed flat. "He never raised me. There was no bond to lose."

Truth was the old man had only summoned him home after

infertility and the family urgent need for a different heir. s

discovering the elderson's el