Chapter 201
Chapter 201:
“I heard June was rushed from the gala. I was so worried about her.” Her eyes moved to his open collar, jealousy spiking beneath the performance.
Cole made no move to button his shirt. He didn’t owe her an explanation.
“She is fine. She needs sleep,” he said, his tone final. “Leave. Don’t disturb her p>
That single, protective command — so effortless, so absolute — shattered the last of Alycia’s composure. It confirmed everything her jealousy had already decided.
“But I brought—” she tried, stepping toward the door.
“I said leave, Alycia.” His voice dropped to a low, dangerous register.
She flinched. She pressed her lips together and manufactured tears. “Fine. Take care of yourself.” She turned and walked back to the elevator.
The moment the stainless steel doors closed and hid her from view, Alycia’s face transformed entirely.
She raised the fruit basket over her head and drove it into the elevator floor with both hands. Apples and grapes burst across the metal surface. She stood in the wreckage, chest heaving, and made a silent, absolute promise to herself.
June Erickson was going to disappear from the face of the earth.
𝖳𝗵e be𝘀𝗍 𝗿𝗲ad𝗶n𝗴 e𝗑𝗉𝗲rіе𝗇с𝖾 𝗈𝘯
Three days later, June signed her own discharge papers against medical advice.
She didn’t call the police. She didn’t respond to the twenty voicemails Cole had left. She had her private driver take her directly to Apex Bio headquarters.
She walked into her corner office wearing a sharp, tailored white pantsuit. Her face was pale. Her eyes were cold and precise as a scalpel.
She picked up the desk phone and pressed the intercom. “Tell Abbie to come to my office. Right now p>
Sixty seconds later, the door opened.
Abbie walked in looking like she hadn’t slept in three days. The dark circles under her eyes were severe, and she had visibly lost weight. Guilt had been consuming her from the inside.
“Dr. Erickson — you’re back. Are you feeling better?” she asked, her voice barely holding together.
June said nothing.
She picked up a thick medical file stamped with the private hospital’s confidential seal and slammed it onto the glass desk.
“My blood toxicology report,” June said. The temperature in the room dropped. “I sent a sample to a colleague at Johns Hopkins. They ran it through a top-tier mass spectrometer. It shows a significant concentration of a black-market hallucinogen — the complete chemical fingerprint of your ‘untraceable’ compound p>
Abbie’s knees buckled. She dropped into the chair across from the desk, her face draining to gray.
“You were the only person who handed me a drink that entire night,” June said, leaning forward. Her eyes held Abbie in place with the force of absolute certainty. “I treated you with nothing but respect. Why did you try to destroy me p>
Under the weight of the evidence and the cold intensity of June’s gaze, Abbie’s last defenses collapsed entirely.
“I’m sorry — I’m so sorry!” she sobbed, burying her face in her hands. “I didn’t want to do it p>
“Tears don’t fix anything,” June said. “Who ordered you to do it p>