[CONTENT TEMPLATE HERE]
Chapter 820:
“She looked at me today,” he whispered. “Really looked at me. And there was nothing there. No hate. No love. No memory. Just —” He searched for the word. “Absence. Like I was already dead. Like I had never existed at all p>
He seized the Macallan bottle and hurled it at the wall. It exploded in a starburst of crystal and amber liquid, and a shard caught his cheek, opening a thin red line that immediately began to well with blood.
Cole did not feel it. He slid off the sofa onto his knees, surrounded by broken glass and spilled whiskey, and began to sob.
Blood dripped from Cole’s cheek onto the carpet, mixing with the spilled whiskey and diluting to a pale pink.
𝘓𝖺𝘁𝖾st ch𝗮𝗽t𝖾𝗋ѕ 𝘰𝘯 𝗀𝗮𝘭𝘯o𝗏е𝗹ѕ.𝖼𝘰𝘮
Lucas reached for the house phone. “I’m calling my doctor p>
“Don’t.” Cole’s voice was thick, congested with tears and alcohol. He wiped his cheek with the back of his hand, smearing blood across his jaw. “This is the only thing that feels real. Let me have it p>
Lucas set the phone down. He sat on the edge of the coffee table — close enough to intervene if Cole tried to hurt himself more seriously, far enough to give him space.
“A few weeks,” Lucas said. “That’s how long until the judge signs the final decree, right? A lot can happen before it’s completely finalized. You could p>
“Nothing can happen.” Cole’s laugh was a wet, ugly sound. “She’s not going to change her mind. She’s not going to forgive me. She doesn’t even see me as a person, Lucas. I’m a prop. A stand-in. A cheap knockoff of the man she actually loved p>
He pressed his palms against his eyes, hard enough to leave red marks. “I spent three years believing I was the prize. That she was desperate for my attention. That I was generous when I threw her scraps.” His voice broke. “I was nothing. Less than nothing. I was the wrong answer to a question she stopped asking the moment she realized her mistake p>
Lucas was quiet for a long moment. When he spoke, his voice was careful. “The baby. The one you mentioned. You really didn’t know p>
“I thought she aborted it.” Cole’s hands fell to his sides. He stared at the ceiling, where a single spotlight illuminated the wreckage of the crystal decanter. “I thought she killed our child to spite me. To get back at me for Alycia.” He swallowed convulsively. “But it was ectopic. She was dying. And I was drinking champagne p>
He turned his head to look at Lucas, his eyes empty, the pupils blown wide. “I’m not just a substitute, Lucas. I’m a murderer. I killed my own child through neglect. I nearly killed her. And then I blamed her for it p>
Lucas had no response. He had known Cole for fifteen years — through business deals and romantic disasters and the slow unraveling that began with Caleb’s death. He had never seen him like this. He had never imagined it was possible.