Chapter 200
Chapter 200:
He took one step back. Then another. He kept his eyes fixed on the shard of glass until he was fully in the hallway, and the heavy door clicked shut between them.
Only then did June’s hand fall. The glass struck the floor. She sank back into the pillows and went still, completely spent.
In the hallway, Cole’s legs gave out beneath him. He slid down the cold wall until he was sitting on the floor, face buried in his hands. At the far end of the corridor, rapid footsteps and the crackle of a radio announced a team of hospital security bearing down on the room. The lead doctor stepped out and raised a hand.
“Stand down,” he said quietly. “The situation is contained. We don’t want to agitate the patient p>
Cole didn’t notice any of it. He sat on the floor with his face in his hands, crushed under the full weight of the monster he had become in her eyes.
The long, agonizing night finally ended. Pale dawn light crept through the windows at the far end of the hospital corridor.
Cole sat in a hard plastic chair outside June’s VIP room. He hadn’t slept.
He looked like a man who had been taken apart. His expensive dress shirt was wrinkled, unbuttoned halfway down his chest. His tie was gone. A heavy shadow of stubble covered his jaw, and his eyes were bloodshot and hollow.
Ro𝘮𝖺ոc𝘦 an𝖽 pas𝗌𝗂𝗈ո 𝗼𝗻
The door opened quietly. The night nurse stepped out.
“Mr. Compton,” she said softly. “Her fever has finally broken. The drug has metabolized completely. She is sleeping peacefully p>
Cole exhaled — a long, shuddering breath. The crushing weight on his chest lifted fractionally.
He stood, his legs heavy as concrete, and eased the door open an inch. Through the gap he could see June breathing evenly, her face pale but calm. He didn’t go inside. He was afraid of waking her.
He closed the door quietly and turned to find the restroom.
At that moment, the elevator at the end of the corridor chimed and slid open.
Alycia stepped out in a pristine designer dress, carrying an expensive fruit basket. Her thug had messaged her the night before that the plan had failed and June had been taken to a hospital. She had come to play the role of the concerned sister-in-law and gather information.
Then her eyes found Cole.
She took in everything at once — the unbuttoned shirt, the bare chest, the disheveled hair, the completely drained posture of a man who had not left that room. The drug had been a powerful aphrodisiac. Cole had been there all night. Alycia’s mind drew its own conclusion with vicious speed: she had spent a fortune engineering June’s ruin, and instead had pushed them back together.
The thought sent acid through her veins. She forced her face into an expression of trembling concern and walked forward.
“Cole?” Her voice wavered on cue. “What are you doing here? Were you — were you here all night p>
Cole looked at her. The exhaustion and the rawness of the night made his patience nonexistent.
“Why are you here?” he asked. His voice was flat and cold.