Chapter 143
Chapter 143:
“Did you get the delivery today?” His tone came out stiff and declarative, more demand than question. He was waiting for acknowledgment — for some signal that his concession had registered.
June turned around slowly, glass in hand.
She looked at him. Her eyes moved across his face — the face that was a precise genetic replica of the boy who had died shielding her from an avalanche. But looking at Cole now, she saw only a stranger. The absolute absence of human connection in her gaze made the hair on Cole’s arms rise.
She did not answer his question.
L𝗮𝘁e𝗌𝘁 𝘤h𝖺р𝗍е𝘳𝗌 𝘰ո.со𝗆
Instead, in a voice that was quiet and sharp as a scalpel, she asked, “Cole — do you remember the snowstorm in Davos, Switzerland, seven years ago p>
Cole’s brow snapped into a hard, angry line. He felt an immediate surge of irritation, certain she was deflecting from the fact that he had given the brooch back.
“What the hell are you talking about?” he said, his voice thick with impatience. “Seven years ago I was in Boston, locked in a library preparing for my Ivy League entrance exams. I have never been to Switzerland in the winter. You know I hate the snow p>
The answer was immediate. Absolute. The final blade severing the last rope.
June stared at him. Deep in her chest, something dark and entirely humorless stirred — a recognition of how completely, devastatingly absurd the whole thing was. She had allowed this arrogant, self-absorbed man to diminish her for three years, because he happened to share the same DNA as a hero.
She did not scream. She did not throw the glass.
She gave a single, slow, almost imperceptible nod. “Yes,” she said softly. “You weren’t there. I mistook you for someone else p>
Cole’s irritation shifted into confusion. The uncanny calmness in her voice sent something cold sliding through his stomach. “Mistook me? What is that supposed to mean p>
June didn’t answer. She set the glass on the counter, turned her back on him, and walked out of the dining room, leaving him standing there speaking to no one.
Thirty minutes later, Cole stepped out of the master bathroom drying his hair.
He stopped.
The room was half-empty. The skincare bottles were gone from the vanity. June’s everyday clothes had disappeared from the open closet.
A spike of panic and fury hit his chest. He dropped the towel and moved into the hallway, pushing open guest room doors one by one as he went, harder with each one that revealed nothing.
At the very end of the corridor, in the smallest and most isolated guest room in the estate, he found her.
June was calmly smoothing the sheets on the narrow bed.
Cole kicked the partially open door. It struck the wall with a sharp, percussive bang.
“What kind of game is this?!” he snapped, stepping into the small room. His frame made the space feel immediately cramped and airless. “Are you throwing a tantrum over a note? Get your things and come back to the master bedroom p>
June stopped smoothing the sheets. She straightened slowly and turned to face him.