Chapter 80
Chapter 80:
Cole looked down at her flushed, furious face, his heart pounding with a dark, twisted satisfaction. She was fighting him — but she was in his arms.
“Remember this,” Cole whispered, his grip on her wrist tightening. “Until a judge signs those papers, your body, your pain, your life — it all belongs to me. No one else gets to touch you p>
Then a loud, obnoxious ringtone shattered the silence.
Cole’s phone vibrated in his pocket. The screen lit up with Alycia’s name.
D𝗼𝘸𝗻𝗅о𝖺𝖽 P𝗗𝘍s f𝘳𝗲𝖾 𝘰𝗻
The spell broke.
June looked at the glowing screen, then up at Cole. A cold, mocking smile spread across her face. “Your true love is calling,” she sneered, yanking her wrist free. “You’d better run along, Cole. You wouldn’t want to disappoint Caleb’s ghost p>
Cole’s face hardened. The mention of Caleb hit him like a bucket of ice water.
He slammed the black porcelain jar onto the bathroom counter, turned, and stormed out of the bathroom. He crossed the suite in long, furious strides, grabbed the door handle, and wrenched it open.
He stopped dead.
Silas Vance had not left.
He was standing in the middle of the hallway with his hands shoved deep into his pockets, staring directly at the door. When he saw Cole walk out of June’s room, the calm in his eyes turned instantly to shards of ice.
The two men faced each other across the hallway. The air between them crackled with the promise of violence.
The hallway lighting was dim, casting long shadows across the thick carpet.
Cole stood in the doorway of June’s suite. His suit jacket was unbuttoned and his tie pulled loose from the struggle in the bathroom — disheveled and dangerous.
Silas’s eyes swept over Cole’s appearance. The muscles in his jaw tightened, and his hands curled into fists inside his pockets.
Cole reached back and pulled June’s door shut behind him. The heavy wood closed with a deliberate, resonant thud — a physical claim of territory.
“Dr. Vance,” Cole said, his lips curling into a mocking smile. “Standing outside a married couple’s door in the middle of the night? That’s a pathetic habit p>
Silas let out a short, cold laugh and didn’t move an inch. “Mr. Compton,” he replied, his voice dangerously even. “Using a legal document to force yourself into a woman’s room isn’t exactly the behavior of a gentleman. It’s the behavior of a coward p>
Cole took a heavy step forward into the hallway, his eyes narrowing to lethal slits. “She carries my name. She is my wife. I suggest you back off and stop reaching for things that don’t belong to you p>
Silas met Cole’s furious gaze with absolute calm — the calm of a man who knew he was right.
“A priceless treasure that you treat like garbage will eventually belong to someone who knows her worth,” Silas said.
He let the words settle for a moment, then delivered the final blow. “And just so you know — June’s lawyer is filing the expedited divorce papers Monday morning. You’re out of time p>
The words hit Cole’s chest like a sledgehammer. Expedited divorce.