Chapter 148
Chapter 148:
His face darkened. He raised a shaking finger. “Stay away from her,” Cole snarled, his voice trembling with barely contained violence. “Keep your nose out of Compton family business p>
Declan let out a sharp, booming laugh. He stood, walked around the desk, and positioned himself directly above Cole, looking down with unhurried superiority.
“Family business?” Declan said, his eyes sharp with amusement. “From what my lawyers tell me, June is actively driving your divorce papers through the courts. Why did you really come here today, Cole? Are you choking on your own jealousy p>
The word was a spark hitting a powder keg.
Cole’s rationality evaporated completely.
He shot up from the chair and seized Declan’s lapels with both hands, twisting the fabric hard. Cole’s assistant took a step forward and immediately froze when Cole turned on him with a look of such unhinged fury that the man pressed himself against the wall.
“I am warning you,” Cole roared, his face inches from Declan’s, his breath hot and ragged. “She is still my wife. As long as I refuse to sign those papers, she is mine. She will never leave me p>
Declan did not flinch. He did not raise his hands. He simply looked into Cole’s bloodshot eyes with absolute, unmoved calm.
Then he swatted Cole’s grip away with one sharp, forceful motion and adjusted his tie.
“You cannot keep her, Cole,” Declan said, his voice a quiet, irrevocable promise. “You don’t know her. You don’t deserve her. And the absolute second that judge brings his gavel down and dissolves your marriage, I am going to pursue her p>
𝗥e𝘢𝗱 𝘧ro𝗆 𝘆𝘰𝗎𝘳 𝗉𝘩𝘰𝗇𝗲 𝗈𝗻 g𝗮𝗅ոо𝘃𝗲lѕ.с𝘰m
The declaration detonated inside Cole’s skull.
He let out a raw, animal sound, spun around, and drove his heel directly into the center of the glass coffee table.
CRASH.
The thick glass exploded into jagged fragments across the carpet.
Cole did not look back. He walked out, his entire body radiating something dark and barely contained. His assistant scrambled after him in silence.
Miles away, inside the bright, sterile laboratory of Apex Bio, June stood at a centrifuge in her white lab coat and protective goggles, entirely absorbed in a new batch of reagents spinning at high speed.
The lab door opened a crack. Chloe peeked in, looking slightly uncertain.
“Dr. Erickson?” she said quietly. “There is a woman in the reception area. She says she’s an old college acquaintance of yours — Sloane Harper. She told security she had an urgent message from Easton Hahn, so they let her up p>
June walked out to the private visitor lounge.
Sloane was seated with enormous designer sunglasses pushed up her nose. The moment June entered, she pulled them down.
“I’ll make this quick,” Sloane said, dispensing with pleasantries entirely. “Alycia has been holding court at the country club, acting as though she’s about to be crowned the next queen of the Compton empire p>
June crossed her arms. “I don’t care about her delusions, Sloane p>