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Chapter 382
Chapter 382:
Inside the room, Old Mr. Clements lay in the hospital bed. The heart monitor beeped rapidly. The old man’s chest heaved with panicked, shallow breaths.
Cole watched June walk directly to the side of the bed.
She did not hesitate. She reached out with her one good hand and gently took the old man’s frail, trembling fingers.
Even through the silent, pixelated feed, the deep, soothing warmth in her expression was unmistakable.
She spoke to the old man, her lips moving in a way that looked exactly like a mother soothing a terrified child.
Cole watched the old man’s rapid breathing slowly begin to calm under her touch. The frantic beeping of the monitor stabilized.
T𝘩e 𝘣𝖾𝘀𝘁 𝘳е𝗮di𝗇𝗴 ех𝗉𝗲r𝘪𝗲nce 𝗈ո
The old man gripped June’s hand tightly. His cloudy eyes looked up at her, filled with undeniable affection.
He opened his mouth. Though Cole couldn’t hear, he could read the words on the old man’s lips. The syllables were slow, raspy, and clear.
“Good girl,” Old Mr. Clements rasped, patting the back of June’s hand. “My good granddaughter-in-law. I knew you would come p>
Granddaughter-in-law.
That single word hit Cole’s brain like a hollow-point bullet.
It exploded inside him, instantly incinerating every rational thought he had left.
The blood drained completely from Cole’s face. His skin turned the color of ash. A loud, high-pitched ringing filled his ears.
He stared at the screen.
He waited for June to pull her hand away. He waited for her to correct the old man — to look shocked, to look disgusted.
She did none of those things.
June’s face revealed not a single crack in her armor. She maintained a gentle, soothing smile, flawlessly playing the role required to keep the old man’s heart rate stable. Only she knew that the muscles in her back had gone completely rigid, fighting the deep, instinctual discomfort of the false intimacy.
Brogan stood on the other side of the bed. He looked at June and offered a helpless, fond smile.
In Cole’s twisted, paranoid mind, that smile was absolute proof — an expression of pure indulgence and shared intimacy.
June picked up a small plastic cup of water from the bedside table. She dipped a cotton swab into the water and gently, patiently moistened the old man’s dry lips.
The gesture was devastatingly tender. It was the kind of care reserved only for real family.
The sight of it destroyed the last remaining pillar of Cole’s sanity.
They were already at this stage. They already had the blessing of the family patriarch. They were just waiting for the divorce papers to be signed.
Cole’s stomach dropped violently.
What was he, then? A pathetic, discarded husband. A massive, humiliating joke.
A thick, freezing wave of malicious jealousy slithered up his spine. It bit directly into the base of his skull, injecting a lethal dose of pure hatred into his bloodstream.
He did not kick the door open. He did not storm into the room and demand answers.
Instead, Cole slowly, mechanically took a step backward.