Her Bodyguard, My Empire

"Dad, Evan may only be a bodyguard right now, but give him a little time and he'll be worth more than Adrian ever was."Adrian does nothing but work, work, work. I'm not marrying him. I'm marrying Evan."Serena Sutton hung off her father's arm in the middle of the Sutton house, wheedling in the sweet, coaxing voice that had gotten her everything she'd ever wanted, and threw me a look of pure distaste over her shoulder.Normally the whole household indulged that voice.Today, when she stopped talking, not one person there dared answer her.Because I was standing right in front of her. Adrian Shaw. Her fiance, in name and in fact.Gerald Sutton did things the way they'd always been done, and his company had been sliding for years. As of this year, the resources he'd taken off my hands had earned him tens of millions in profit.Whatever the Sutton family still had, it had because I'd propped it up.All they needed to do was keep hold of me and they'd never worry about money again,

"If Serena is set on this, then let's call off the engagement. I hope the two of you are very happy."Gerald's face drained.Diane broke a teacup.Neither of them could believe that I, of all people, the man who'd carried their daughter in the palm of his hand since the day she was born, would say a thing like that.They'd always assumed I'd take whatever she gave me and come back for more.Even Serena needed a moment."Adrian. You're... serious?"It was the softest she'd spoken to me in years, and I knew why. She wasn't afraid of losing me. She was afraid I'd change my mind.She wanted to run off into the sunset with him, and once I was out of the way, nobody could stop her.What she didn't know was that I wasn't a man short of options.I ran the Shaw family. If I so much as nodded, there'd be no end of women willing to become whatever I wanted and throw themselves at me.I'd never looked at a single one of them, because I'd been full of her.But she'd cut the thread betwe

She heard the word love with a don't in front of it, and her face changed on the spot.She bit down on her lower lip, anxious, and made herself look straight at me anyway."Is that right? Then you'd better mean it."And she got up and walked out in a temper.For years, under my care, she'd had a themed party for every single birthday.Tonight she'd come to a restaurant on her own, and she left on her own.I watched her go, and thought about it for a moment, and in the end I said nothing.In my first life I'd given her every chance at a good life, and she'd thrown all of them away.This time she could do as she liked. It wasn't mine to carry.I'd assumed that after watching me treat Serena that coldly, Evelyn would decide I wasn't worth her time.Instead she turned out to understand business, and to follow soccer, and we spent the whole evening raising our glasses and talking.We'd barely gotten into the car before we were kissing like a match dropped in dry grass."Evelyn.

He spent one half of his time charming Serena.The other half he spent cutting out anyone who wasn't loyal.It didn't take long before Sutton Group was a company with exactly one opinion in it.At the quarterly review, every project Evan had put money behind came back with its profits doubled.Serena was vindicated at last. She posted a photo of a luxury home and tagged me on purpose.The caption read, thank you to my husband for our new house.But when I opened the picture, that wasn't Evan's house. That was the penthouse I'd kept for myself at Riverview Tower.The moment she posted it, Liam messaged me."Adrian, isn't that your place? Why is Serena saying Evan bought it for her?"I offered you forty million for that unit and you wouldn't sell. What did he pay you?"I laughed and sent him a photograph of the deed.That finished Liam off entirely.The man had scraped together five dollars for a group chat when he was introduced.Now he'd taken over his girlfriend's family

"This is my fault?"She asked it the way you'd ask a stranger. "Evan. How can you say that to me?"She'd barely finished when one of the men laughed."Miss Sutton, don't rush. The car, or your man's fingers. Either way."We'll let you watch something first, and then you can decide."He nodded, and the big screen at the end of the ballroom came alive with Evan's soft white face.In the video, Evan was on a hotel bed with his arm around a woman who must have weighed two hundred pounds."You come out with me like this, Evan. Aren't you afraid your wife will find out?"Evan was out of breath. "It isn't as though it's our first time, Cassandra. What are you worried about?"Besides, you're the only one I've ever had in my heart."If it weren't for the Sutton company, why on earth would I have anything to do with that girl?"The two of them looked like mother and son, and they were lovers.When the video ended there wasn't a drop of color left in Serena's face.She swung her arm