His Dangerous Love On Ice (Olivia and Zane) novel Chapter 172

172 /180

Olive’s POV

Cole looked the same as he always did, annoyingly handsome in that calculated way, like he’d spent exactly the right amount of time in front of a mirror to look casually attractive instead of trying too hard, wearing dark jeans and a fitted shirt that showed off the body he worked obsessively to maintain.

But there was something different in his eyes tonight, something that looked almost manic, like he’d been drinking or maybe just working himself up to this confrontation for hours.

“What do you want, Cole?” I asked, crossing my arms and staying exactly where I was instead of moving closer, keeping distance between us because proximity to Cole had never ended well for me.

“I just want to talk,” he said, holding up his hands like he was harmless, like he hadn’t shown up uninvited at a club where he knew I’d be. “Five minutes. That’s all I’m asking.”

“And I’m telling you I don’t have five minutes,” I said flatly. “I’m here with my friends. I’m trying to have a good night. And you being here is ruining that, so please just leave.”

“How could you forget about me so easily?” Cole asked, and there was genuine hurt in his voice that might have affected me if I didn’t know him well enough to recognize it as manipulation. “After all the years we spent together, after everything we were to each other, you just moved on like I never mattered?”

“You didn’t matter,” I said, the words coming out harsher than I intended but also more honest. “And you cheated on me… used me…” My voice rose slowly…but there was no hurt there. “What we had wasn’t healthy, Cole. It wasn’t love. And I’m better off without you.”

Something dark flashed across his face. “You think you’re better off with Zane Mercer? With someone who’s using you just like everyone else in his family has used people?”

“Don’t,” I warned. “Don’t stand there and pretend you care about my wellbeing when we both know you’re just pissed off that I chose someone better over you. Someone you never imagined I will be with.”

“Fine,” Cole said, his voice getting louder, angrier. “You win, Olive. You totally win. I get it now, you wanted revenge, and you got your revenge on me by parading around with Zane Mercer, by making me watch while you played happy couple with someone who’s clearly out of your league. Congratulations. You made your point. So now you can leave him and we can both move on with our lives.”

I stared at him, my brain trying to process what he’d just said. Had he lost a nut.

“Revenge?” I repeated slowly. “You think I got with Zane as revenge against you?”

“Wasn’t it?” Cole challenged. “You knew it would kill me to see you with him. You knew I’d have to watch while the Mercer Company destroyed every opportunity I had. You knew exactly what you were doing when you chose him over me.”

“Oh my god,” I said, and I would have laughed if it wasn’t so pathetic. “You actually think my entire relationship is about you. You think I chose to be with someone I care about just to hurt your feelings.”

“Don’t you?” Cole asked.

“No, Cole. Wait…No….I chose revenge at first… but Shockingly, I realized my life doesn’t revolve around you anymore,” I said. “I chose Zane because I wanted to. Because he makes me happy. Because being with him feels right in ways being with you never did. This has nothing to do with revenge or making you jealous or whatever narrative you’ve created in your head.”

“Then leave him,” Cole said suddenly, stepping closer. “If it’s not about revenge anymore, if you really are that happy with him, then it should be easy to walk away. Prove to me that you’ve moved on. Prove that I don’t matter anymore.”

“I don’t have to prove anything to you,” I said, backing up to maintain distance. “And I’m not leaving Zane just because you can’t handle that I’m with someone else.”

Cole’s jaw clenched and I watched his hands curl into fists at his sides, watched him struggle with whatever he’d planned to say next.

“He doesn’t love you the way I did,” Cole said finally, his voice dropping lower. “He doesn’t know you the way I know you. And he’s keeping secrets from you, Olive. Big ones. Secrets that would destroy your relationship if you knew the truth.”

“Everyone has secrets,” I said, even though his words hit closer to home than I wanted to admit. “And whatever Zane is keeping from me is between me and him. It has nothing to do with you.”

“Doesn’t it?” Cole asked. “Because I know things, Olive. Things about Zane that you don’t. Things he’s done. Things he’s hiding.”

My heart rate kicked up because there was something in the way he said it that made it sound like he actually did know something, not just fishing for reactions.

“If you have something to say, then say it,” I challenged. “Stop dancing around it and just tell me whatever you think you know.”

Cole stared at me for a long moment, clearly debating something.

“I know about that day,” he said finally. “The day the video came out. The day you were framed and your entire life fell apart.”

I felt my stomach drop. “What about it?”

“I came to your apartment that day,” Cole said, and there was something almost gleeful in his voice now, like he’d been waiting for the perfect moment to reveal this. “I wanted to talk to you, wanted to try to fix things between us. But when I got there, I found something interesting.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, but my voice came out weaker than I wanted because I had a terrible feeling I knew where this was going.

“I got to your apartment and the door I unlocked it,” Cole continued. “So I let myself in. And you know what I found next after waiting for your silly ass?”

He paused, clearly enjoying this.

“I found you,” he said. “With Zane Mercer. In your bedroom. And you were moaning so fucking loud, Olive. Screaming his name like he was the only person in the world who mattered”

The words hit me like a physical blow, knocking the air straight out of my lungs.

“You were in my apartment?” I managed to get out. “You let yourself into my apartment without permission and-”

“I watched,” Cole interrupted, and there was something sick in his smile now. “I stood in your closet and I watched while Zane fucked you against your bed. Watched while you begged him for more. Watched while you gave him everything you used to give me.”

I felt bile rising in my throat, felt my hands start shaking with a combination of rage and violation and absolute horror.

“You watched us?” I repeated, my voice coming out strangled. “You stood there and watched without saying anything, without leaving, you just—”

“I wanted to see what was so special about him,” Cole said. “Wanted to understand what made Zane Mercer worth throwing away two years of our relationship. And you know what I realized while I was watching?”