If you are looking for While I Was Bleeding Out He Lit Lanterns For Her Chapter 1 read online…
Chapter 431
Chapter 431:
She had stolen the most private, agonizing trauma of June’s life, weaponized a dead child and a broken body, and handed it directly to the one person capable of using it to destroy him.
The assistant’s phone buzzed again.
“Boss,” he said, reading the incoming message, his voice dropping lower still. “We cannot trace the leak’s IP directly, but our source at Page Six confirmed that the tip-off call came from a burner phone purchased two blocks from the Beasley residence. We have also pulled financial records showing a large, untraceable wire payment from Susan Beasley to a known paparazzi photographer yesterday afternoon p>
Two poisoned blades drove into Cole’s chest simultaneously.
He had been played. Treated like a gullible fool by a family of parasites. They had used his guilt over June and his desperate need to fulfill his duty to the supposed child, orchestrating a flawless, very public ambush.
Cole let out a low, guttural sound — a noise of pure, violent humiliation.
He reached over and snatched the phone from his assistant’s hand, bypassed the Bluetooth, and spoke directly to the PR Director.
𝗢𝗋𝘨𝘢ո𝘪𝘻е у𝗈𝘶𝗋 li𝗯𝘳𝖺𝗿𝘆 oո
“I do not care what you have to do,” Cole said, his voice vibrating with lethal precision. “I want every mention of the word ‘pregnancy’ scrubbed from Wall Street within the hour. If you fail, you and your entire department will be clearing out your desks tomorrow morning p>
He ended the call and threw the phone against the dashboard. The screen spider-webbed instantly.
The assistant flinched and pressed himself harder against the door.
Cole slammed the car into drive and pulled back into traffic.
He was no longer heading toward June. He was heading straight for his own penthouse — for the gilded cage where he had placed Alycia.
The guilt and confusion were gone. His face had settled into a mask of absolute, murderous calm.
A storm was about to hit the penthouse.
The biometric lock clicked open with barely a sound.
Cole stepped into the massive foyer and moved through it like a ghost.
The living room was flooded with warm, expensive light. Alycia was lounging on the Italian leather sofa in a silk robe, a mug of warm milk in one hand and her phone in the other. A wide, victorious smile was spread across her face as she scrolled through the trending news.
She heard the faint rustle of his suit. She looked up.
The smile vanished instantly. With practiced speed, she executed a flawless emotional pivot — her eyes widening, filling with manufactured panic and unshed tears.
She scrambled off the sofa and rushed toward him.
“Cole, you’re back,” Alycia cried, her voice trembling perfectly. “The news — I swear it wasn’t me. I don’t know how they found out p>
The words died in her throat.
She looked into his eyes and felt a chill move through her. There was no anger in his gaze. There was only a freezing, bottomless abyss.
Cole said nothing. He took a single slow, deliberate step forward.
The sheer weight of his presence forced her back.
He walked past her and stopped at the glass coffee table. He raised his right hand and opened his fist.