Chapter 35
Chapter 35:
June walked with her head up. She went straight to the conference room Easton had reserved — empty except for a large screen and a fresh pot of coffee.
“They’re tearing you apart out there,” Easton said, walking in behind her. He placed a tablet on the table. “Our motion to unfreeze your assets was denied pending the hearing. Cole’s lawyers are classifying you as a flight risk p>
“Of course they are,” June said, her voice level. “He wants me desperate. He wants me crawling back p>
She plugged her laptop into the projector.
“This is not about the money, Easton. This is about erasure. He wants to wipe me off the map — professionally, personally, completely p>
The screen lit up. Not scientific data. A list. A long list of patents.
“These are all the patents filed by Compton Medical over the last three years relating to genetic sequencing and protein synthesis,” June said. She clicked, and a second list appeared, highlighted in red. “And these are the ones derived directly from my doctoral thesis. A thesis Cole has had a copy of for years p>
Easton leaned forward, his expression sharpening. “He stole your work p>
“He didn’t steal it,” June said, a cold fire in her eyes. “He buried it. He took my research, patented it under his company’s name, and then told me the world wasn’t ready for a housewife scientist. He put me in a cage and used my own ideas as the bars p>
Silence settled over the room.
“That’s not merely grounds for divorce,” Easton said slowly, a dangerous smile spreading across his face. “That’s industrial espionage. That’s fraud on a scale that could bring down his entire company p>
𝘙𝘦𝘤𝘰m𝗆𝖾𝗇𝗱 𝘵o у𝗼𝗎𝗿 𝗳𝗿і𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀
“I know,” June said. “The problem is proof. My original data is on a server inside his mansion p>
Her phone buzzed.
A text from Miles: The board is panicking about the press. They want to pull you from the Summit. I told them to go to hell. I need you here. We all do.
June looked at the message, then back at the screen full of stolen ideas.
Cole believed he had buried her under the mud and the lies. He had forgotten something fundamental. She was not wreckage.
She was a seed. And he had just handed her a bulldozer.
The yellow taxi idled outside the massive iron gates of Compton Manor at exactly ten in the morning.
June stepped out into the crisp air wearing the blood-red suit. It felt like armor.
She walked to the security pedestal, her heart hammering against her ribs. Cole had frozen her accounts, canceled her cards, and made his grand, destructive gestures with the confidence of a man who believed she would never dare set foot on his property again. It was that very arrogance — that consuming certainty in his own power — that had made him careless about the small, mechanical details of his own home.
June pressed her right thumb against the biometric scanner.
A second of agonizing silence.
The scanner beeped. The light turned green. The heavy iron gates swung slowly open.
He had forgotten to revoke her security clearance.