Chapter 117
Chapter 117:
Cole pulled a tissue from the box on the counter and handed it to her. “Stop crying,” he said, his voice worn down but no longer cold. “The SEC is all over my company right now. Once the audit clears, I will find a way to stabilize your position p>
Alycia gasped softly. She wrapped her arms around his neck and nodded against his shoulder. “I will wait,” she whispered. “I will wait forever p>
At that same moment, inside the bright, sterile offices of Apex Bio, June sat at her desk with her eyes fixed on the glowing screen, deep in the Phase II clinical data.
Her phone vibrated.
𝗖𝘩i𝘯𝘦𝘀𝖾 𝘯𝘰𝘃𝘦𝗅s t𝘳a𝗇𝗌𝗅𝘢𝗍е𝗱 o𝗻
She picked it up. A text from Declan Hayes.
Dinner tonight. Per Se. 8 PM. Let’s discuss your patent distribution.
June stared at the expensive, pointed invitation. A quiet flash of annoyance moved through her. She had no interest in playing games with arrogant billionaires. She had an empire to build.
She typed her reply with quick, deliberate taps.
I am working late in the lab tonight. The data requires my full attention. No.
She hit send and dropped the phone back onto the desk.
In the executive suite of Hayes Pharmaceuticals, Declan read the rejection on his screen.
He did not frown.
A low, dark chuckle rose in his chest. The absolute refusal only poured fuel onto something already burning.
Back in the Tribeca penthouse, Cole sent Alycia to rest in the guest bedroom, then walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows and stood there staring out at the gray Manhattan skyline.
He pulled his phone from his pocket and opened his contacts. June’s name sat on the screen.
His grandmother’s threat echoed in his ears. He needed to call. He needed to fix this.
But his ego — massive and brittle in equal measure — recoiled. He remembered the look in June’s eyes at the summit. Not anger, not pain. Nothing. He had simply ceased to exist in her world.
His thumb hovered over the call button. His jaw clenched until his teeth ached.
He locked the screen and threw the phone onto the leather sofa.
She was throwing a tantrum. That was all. When she realized how cold the world was without his protection, she would come back. She always would have come back.
He told himself this until he almost believed it.
It was eleven-thirty at night.
The lights inside the Apex Bio building were shutting off one by one.
June pushed through the heavy glass revolving doors and rubbed the back of her neck. The muscles were tied in painful knots from fourteen hours at the microscope. The early autumn air in Manhattan was sharp, biting straight through her clothes.
She shivered and pulled the lapels of her camel trench coat tight across her chest. She took out her phone and opened the rideshare app.
Three minutes later, a black Toyota Camry pulled up to the curb. June checked the license plate, confirmed the match, pulled the rear door open, and slid into the back seat.
The driver was a large, heavyset man in a dirty baseball cap. His eyes flicked up to the rearview mirror and settled on June’s face and the expensive fabric of her coat. A sleazy, unsettling gleam passed through them.