Chapter 248
Chapter 248:
Cole’s bloodshot eyes locked onto the signature at the bottom of the first page: June Erickson. The ink was sharp, decisive, and completely merciless.
Panic detonated inside his mind.
She had actually filed. She was dragging him into open court.
His breathing turned ragged and shallow, like an animal caught in a steel trap. He flipped frantically to the second page and read the grounds for divorce.
Prolonged emotional abuse. Financial coercion. Medical abandonment resulting in near-fatal ectopic rupture.
Every word was a razor blade drawn slowly across his chest. She was laying every one of his sins out for a judge to examine under full light.
Cole’s hands clamped onto the edges of the desk. With a guttural roar, he swept his arm violently across the surface. Monitors, crystal glasses, and pens flew across the room, crashing and shattering against the walls.
𝖥о𝗅𝘭𝗈𝘄 𝘶𝗌 о𝘯
“She is not leaving me!” Cole screamed, his voice tearing. His eyes were completely feral, burning with desperate, psychotic fire. “She will never leave me p>
Davis took a step backward, raising both hands. “Sir, please. Her counsel is Easton Hahn. He is a legal shark. If we fight this without a strategy p>
The name landed in Cole’s mind like a lit match on dry fuel.
“Easton?” Cole snarled, his face twisting. “That hypocritical bastard. They have been sleeping together behind my back this whole time p>
He lunged across the desk and seized Davis by the collar, yanking the lawyer onto his toes.
“Listen to me,” Cole roared, spittle flying from his lips. “You will use every single lawyer in this building to choke this case to death. File jurisdictional objections. Dispute every financial asset. Demand psychiatric evaluations. You will stall this trial indefinitely p>
Davis’s face began to turn purple. “Sir — that is malicious litigation. The judges in New York will penalize us severely p>
“I don’t care!” Cole bellowed, throwing Davis backward. “I will burn half my fortune if it keeps her legally bound to me p>
At that moment, Hayes, a senior executive, pushed the door open carrying an urgent merger file. He froze in the doorway, staring at the devastated office.
Cole spun and pointed a shaking finger at him. “Get out! Cancel every meeting today p>
Hayes pulled the door shut and sprinted down the hallway.
The office fell into a dead, ringing silence, broken only by Cole’s heavy, ragged gasps. He collapsed back into his leather chair and buried his face in his trembling hands.
He knew exactly what he was. He knew his behavior was that of a tyrant. But the sheer, paralyzing terror of losing her entirely had swallowed his sanity whole.
He grabbed his backup phone, dropped it twice, and finally managed to dial June’s number. He pressed it to his ear.
A cold, automated voice answered immediately. The number you have reached is not in service.
She had changed her number. She had erased his last remaining point of access to her completely.