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Chapter 619
Chapter 619:
Susan Beasley sat in the kitchen — the only room with working electricity — and stared at the wall. Her face was still swollen from June’s slap, the bruise a livid purple that makeup could not fully conceal. But her eyes were sharp, calculating, alive with a hatred that had burned through fear and emerged on the other side as something pure and crystalline.
Richard paced the length of the room, his footsteps erratic, before suddenly slamming his fist on the counter and rattling the few remaining glasses.
“This is your fault!” he snarled, whirling on Alycia. “And yours!” He pointed a trembling finger at Susan. “If you two hadn’t been so greedy, so stupid p>
“Shut up.” Susan’s voice cracked like a whip.
Richard stopped, staring at her with a face flushed by impotent rage.
In the corner, Alycia sat on the floor with her knees drawn to her chest, her expensive white dress wrinkled and stained. She had not spoken in hours. Her eyes were fixed on nothing, her mind somewhere far away, processing the finality of Cole’s rejection.
Susan stood. She walked to her daughter, grabbed her chin with cruel fingers, and forced her face upward.
𝘑𝘰𝘪𝗻 𝘵h𝗼𝘂𝗌а𝗇dѕ 𝗈f 𝘧𝖺𝗻ѕ 𝗼ո.с𝘰𝗆
“Look at me.” She shook her. “Look at me, you stupid girl. This isn’t over. We are not finished p>
Alycia’s eyes focused slowly. “He doesn’t want me, Mama. He knows I wasn’t the girl in Switzerland. He knows everything. He’s going to p>
“He doesn’t want you because you have nothing to offer.” Susan’s voice turned cold and analytical. “But you have something now. Something he can’t ignore. Something that gives us leverage p>
She released Alycia’s chin and stepped back, her gaze sweeping the room — her broken husband, her shattered daughter, the ruins of a life built on lies and manipulation.
“The baby,” she said.
Alycia’s hand moved to her stomach. “But it’s not — there is no p>
“I know.” Susan’s smile was terrible. “But he doesn’t. Not for certain. And in the space between what he suspects and what he can prove, we have room to maneuver p>
She began to pace, her mind working with the speed of a woman who had spent decades surviving on the edges of respectable society.
“Here is what we do. We arrange a meeting with June Erickson. A public place, somewhere with witnesses. We engineer a confrontation — an argument, a scuffle. You fall. You miscarry. On the spot. In front of everyone p>
Richard’s mouth opened. “Susan, that’s p>
“Genius,” she finished. “Because who will they believe? The poor, grieving mother who lost her child? Or the cold, calculating woman who drove her to it p>
She turned to Alycia, her eyes burning with fanatical intensity. “You’ll be the victim, darling. The most sympathetic victim in New York. The media will devour it. The Compton family will be forced to acknowledge you, to compensate you, to shield themselves from the scandal. And June Erickson will be destroyed. She’ll be the monster who killed Cole Compton’s unborn child. She’ll never work again. She’ll never show her face in polite society. She’ll be finished p>
Alycia stared at her mother. Something flickered in her eyes — not hope exactly, but the desperate willingness of a drowning woman to grasp at any straw.
“Where?” she whispered. “Where would we p>