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Chapter 407
Chapter 407:
His facial muscles went rigid. His jaw ticked so hard the bone looked like it might snap. His eyes turned into two black, bottomless pits of murderous rage.
Alycia saw June. Her smug smile vanished instantly, replaced by a twisted sneer of pure hatred.
Four months ago, that terrifying expression on Cole’s face would have made June’s stomach drop. She would have instinctively stepped away from Easton to avoid his wrath.
Tonight, June did not flinch.
𝖣о𝗐n𝗹𝗼a𝘥 𝗣𝘋𝘍𝗌 𝗳𝘳𝘦e 𝗼𝘯
She lifted her chin and looked directly into Cole’s burning, bloodshot eyes. Her face was a mask of perfect, absolute indifference — the look of someone glancing at a piece of trash blowing across the sidewalk.
It was the ultimate insult. Her total lack of fear, her complete emotional detachment, cut Cole far deeper than any blade.
June did not step away from Easton. Instead, she shifted a fraction of an inch closer to him, leaning subtly into the warmth of his hand at her back.
It was a tiny movement. The message was deafening.
Easton felt her shift toward him. A slow, deeply arrogant smirk touched the corner of his mouth. He ignored Cole’s homicidal glare entirely, reached out, and pulled the heavy brass handle of the Balthazar door open. Turning his body to shield June from Cole’s view, he offered her a polite, unhurried nod.
“After you,” Easton murmured, his voice rich and entirely unbothered.
June did not spare Cole or Alycia a single glance. She walked through the doors with perfect, regal grace.
Easton followed. Just before the heavy wooden door swung shut behind him, he turned his head and looked directly at Cole. His eyes were cold, mocking, and full of absolute victory. He gave Cole one tiny, dismissive tilt of his chin.
You lost.
The door clicked shut.
Cole stood paralyzed on the sidewalk.
His breathing came harsh and ragged. His hands had curled into fists at his sides, his fingernails digging so deeply into his palms that he could feel the skin breaking.
He had just watched his wife walk into a restaurant with another man, and he was completely powerless to stop it.
Alycia tugged on his arm, her voice rising to a whine. “Cole, did you see them? They are completely shameless p>
“Shut your mouth p>
His voice cracked through the night air like a thunderclap.
He ripped his arm violently from her grasp without looking at her, spun on his heel, and marched toward the private dining entrance of the restaurant, leaving Alycia stumbling on the pavement in her expensive heels.
The private dining room inside Balthazar was a tomb of suffocating luxury.
The walls were lined with dark teak wood. The lighting was dim. The only sound in the room was the soft, expensive clink of heavy silver cutlery against fine bone china.
Julian Thorne sat at the head of the table, sweating through his designer shirt.
He had spent three weeks arranging this dinner. He genuinely believed that if he could just get Cole and Crawford Love into the same room, he could help mend their broken, thirty-year friendship.
He was a complete idiot.