Chapter 152
Chapter 152:
Cole lowered himself slowly onto one knee in the wet grass, ignoring the mud seeping into his suit. He placed the white roses at the base of the headstone with deliberate care.
He reached out. His leather-gloved fingers traced the cold edge of the stone.
“Seven years, Caleb,” he whispered. His voice was hoarse, fractured at the edges by the weight of everything he kept compressed inside.
He closed his eyes. The rain continued its relentless percussion against his umbrella.
He forced the words out — the ones that kept him locked in his own private hell.
“I haven’t forgotten my promise,” Cole said quietly to the cold stone, his jaw tight. “I will use every resource the Compton family has to protect the girl you loved p>
His mind flashed immediately to Alycia’s rehearsed, tear-stained face. A wave of nausea rolled through him. He despised her. Every performance, every calculated sob, every manufactured vulnerability. Yet the steel trap of his obligation to his dead brother held, as it always had.
T𝘩e 𝖻e𝗌𝘁 𝗿e𝘃іew𝗌 𝗈ո
He had no idea that the girl Caleb had actually loved — the girl Caleb had bled and nearly died to protect — was the same woman Cole was currently grinding through a divorce battle. He was swearing to protect the villain while destroying the true victim, and the catastrophic irony of it walked with him, unseen, as he turned and moved back into the rain.
Miles away, inside a lavishly decorated bedroom in the Beasley family’s Long Island mansion, Alycia sat at her ornate vanity, working expensive moisturizer into her skin with unsteady hands.
The door clicked. Susan walked in and dropped a glossy, discreetly printed medical brochure onto the vanity table without preamble.
Alycia looked down. It advertised confidential IVF treatments and surrogate matching services at a private clinic in Eastern Europe.
“The SEC audit on Cole’s company concludes next week,” Susan said, her voice hard and urgent. “Once he has full control of the company, he will sever every tie he has with us. We are out of time p>
Alycia stared at the brochure. Her face went chalk-white.
She gripped the vanity’s edge. The humiliation of the truth pushed its way up her throat before she could stop it.
“Mom, I can’t use a clinic,” she whispered, not looking away from her own reflection. “Since I came back to New York, Cole has never touched me. Not once.” She let the words settle before continuing, a hysterical edge beginning to surface. “He buys me jewelry. He lets me stand beside him at galas. But he has never let me inside his bedroom. If I show up pregnant, he will know immediately that the child is not his p>
Susan’s face underwent a subtle but complete transformation — all warmth departing, leaving only cold calculation in its place.
She leaned forward and placed her hands on Alycia’s shoulders, fingers pressing into the skin with uncomfortable force.
“If you cannot get pregnant naturally,” Susan said, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper, “then we will purchase a pregnancy p>
Alycia blinked. “What do you mean p>