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Chapter 591
Chapter 591:
The arrogant, untouchable man who controlled billions of dollars and commanded rooms without speaking was gone. What remained was entirely unrecognizable — eyes completely bloodshot, expression shattered, every defense stripped away.
When he looked at his grandmother and spoke, his voice was so strained it barely carried across the space between them.
“I see her eyes every time I close mine,” Cole said. The words tasted like blood. “I see her looking at Easton. I see her getting into Crawford’s car. And it feels like someone is pouring acid through my chest p>
A single tear broke from his lower lash line and tracked slowly down his cheek, dropping onto the back of his hand.
“I love her,” he whispered, his voice fracturing completely. “And I destroyed her with my own hands p>
The sound of Cole’s confession settled into the heavy air of the master bedroom and stayed there.
Eleanor looked at the broken man slumped in the chair. For a fraction of a second, something resembling pity crossed her aged face. She extinguished it immediately. Pity would not save the Compton empire.
She leaned back against the velvet pillows, her expression hardening into cold stone.
“If you love June,” she said, her voice dropping to a quiet, cutting whisper, “then why did you keep that venomous creature, Alycia, at your side? Why did you allow that woman to torture the person you claim to love p>
Cole’s body jerked as though he had been struck.
𝗪e 𝘶р𝗱𝘢tе 𝘦𝘷𝗲𝗋𝗒 𝘄𝘦𝗲k o𝗇 ѕ.𝘤𝗼m
It was a physical reaction — as if Eleanor had taken a blade and driven it directly into the most infected wound in his soul. He closed his eyes and drew a deep, shuddering breath.
He couldn’t hide it any longer. The lie had been eating through him for years.
He pushed himself to his feet, crossed unsteadily to the tall arched windows, and stared out at the black ocean hammering the cliffs below.
“Seven years ago,” he began, his voice ground down to a low rasp. “When I went to Switzerland to collect Caleb’s belongings after the avalanche p>
Eleanor’s hands tightened on the blanket. Her knuckles went white at the sound of her dead grandson’s name.
“I found a Polaroid photograph hidden in the lining of his jacket,” Cole continued, not turning from the window. “It was blurry. A girl in a hospital gown. On the back, Caleb had written that she was his light. His soulmate p>
He turned his head. His bloodshot eyes found Eleanor’s across the room.
“It was Alycia,” he said. The words came out soaked in self-loathing. “She was the girl Caleb died trying to get back to. I never loved Alycia. I never touched her with any romantic intent. Everything I did for her — the money, the protection, tolerating the fake pregnancy — all of it was guilt. Pure, consuming guilt p>
The room went completely silent.
Eleanor’s chest rose and fell in rapid, shallow movements. Her mind worked through the full weight of what she had just heard — the sheer, staggering magnitude of the mistake.
Then a sound erupted from her throat.