Chapter 132
Chapter 132:
June shook her head slowly. Her voice was an empty thread of sound. “I just want to go home p>
She stepped into the elevator. The doors closed.
Vera stood in the hallway for a moment, then turned and pushed through the heavy auditorium doors.
The crowd had begun to drift toward the cocktail reception. Vera’s eyes moved across the room until they found Cole in the front row. Then they dropped to Alycia’s chest.
Her breath caught.
D𝗼𝘸ոload𝗮𝘣𝘭𝖾 P𝖣𝘍𝘴 o𝗇
As June’s closest friend, she had seen the faded, worn photograph of June’s mother wearing that exact Cartier orchid more times than she could count. She knew precisely what it meant and precisely what it had cost.
A geyser of pure, incandescent rage erupted inside her.
She walked down the aisle, her heels driving into the carpet like they had a personal grievance with it.
Cole was turning to lead Alycia toward the bar when Vera stepped directly into his path.
She stared at the brooch. A short, harsh laugh escaped her — the kind that carries no amusement at all.
“Cole Compton,” she said. Her voice was not loud, but it was laced with a venom that cut through the ambient noise of the room. “I always knew you were an arrogant bastard. I never realized you were a soulless monster p>
Cole’s expression hardened. “Watch your mouth, Vera. I bought a piece of jewelry at a charity auction. Get out of my way p>
“A piece of jewelry.” Vera stepped closer, her eyes filling with furious tears. “That is the only surviving relic of June’s dead mother. She has been searching for that brooch for seven years. It was her mother’s soul p>
The words struck Cole like a bolt of lightning through the skull.
His entire body went rigid. The noise of the room fell away entirely.
“What,” he whispered. His voice barely functioned. “What did you say p>
“You used your money to steal her mother’s memory,” Vera said, her face twisted with disgust. “And then you pinned it on the chest of the woman who tortured her p>
She took a step back and looked at him as though she were seeing something genuinely monstrous for the first time.
“You didn’t just buy a brooch today, Cole,” Vera said, her voice dropping to a register that was somehow more devastating for its quietness. “You just destroyed the very last atom of mercy June had left for you in this world p>
She turned and walked out of the hall without looking back.
Cole stopped breathing.
The air was pulled from his lungs as though the room had been depressurized. His heart felt as though something had closed around it and was squeezing with steady, mechanical force.
He turned his head slowly and looked at the diamond orchid resting against Alycia’s chest.
The beautiful pink sapphires no longer looked like gemstones. They looked like drops of blood. They looked like needles pressing directly into his eyes. A massive, suffocating wave of realization crashed over him and did not recede.
He had just committed something unforgivable.