Chapter 71
Chapter 71:
She walked out of the VIP room and into the main buffet area, making straight for the seafood station. A large silver vat held traditional New England Clam Chowder — thick, creamy, and boiling hot. Steam rolled from its surface.
Alycia picked up a heavy ceramic bowl and filled it to the very brim.
She held it with both hands and looked toward the patio doors, tracing a path — one that led her directly behind June’s chair.
She walked slowly. As she stepped onto the wooden deck, she adjusted her grip. Then, positioning herself directly behind June, she drove the thin heel of her stiletto into the gap between two floorboards. She twisted her ankle and let out a loud, theatrical shriek.
As she staged her fall, Alycia flicked her wrists forward.
The entire bowl of boiling clam chowder arced through the air and landed squarely on the back of June’s neck, her right shoulder, and her arm.
June let out a choked, agonizing gasp.
The boiling liquid soaked instantly through the thin navy silk. The heat was catastrophic — like a torch held directly against bare skin. The ceramic bowl struck the wooden deck and shattered. The crash silenced the entire restaurant.
Alycia collapsed to the floor, grabbing her ankle and crying loudly. “Oh my God! I tripped! My ankle — it hurts so much p>
Inside the VIP room, Cole heard the crash. He shot to his feet so fast his heavy chair toppled backward. He sprinted out the door.
He burst onto the patio. His heart stopped.
𝘕𝗈𝗏𝗲𝗅s 𝗶𝗇 𝘵𝗋𝘦𝗇𝗱 𝗼ո
June was hunched over the table, shaking violently. The skin on her exposed arm was already turning an angry, violent red, massive blisters forming in real time before his eyes.
Every instinct in his body screamed at him to run to her. To pick her up. To fix it.
He took one large step toward June.
“Cole!” Alycia wailed from the floor. “Cole, please — I think my bone is broken! It hurts p>
Cole froze.
He looked down at her, tears streaming down her face, hands clutching her leg.
A voice echoed in his head. His dead twin brother’s voice. Take care of her, Cole. Promise me.
The guilt. The heavy, suffocating chain of that promise locked around his throat. He had given his word to a dying man.
With a hundred guests staring in silence, Cole stopped moving toward his wife. He turned his body and knelt down beside Alycia.
He looked up at a terrified waiter, his voice mechanical, completely emptied of emotion. “Get help. Get Ms. Beasley to the clinic immediately. Put the bill on my room p>
The words hung in the air.
June heard him. Through the blinding, white-hot pain burning across her skin, she heard him choose Alycia. Again.
She slowly lifted her head. Her face was pale and covered in cold sweat. She looked at Cole kneeling on the floor, and she did not yell. She did not cry. She looked at him with eyes that were completely, utterly dead — the look you give a stranger on the street.
Cole saw her eyes. A sudden, terrifying panic seized his chest. He felt like he was falling off a cliff.