The Coldest Man in the Room Melted Only for Me novel Chapter 70

But the more she remembered those idyllic moments, the more hysterically her chest shattered, her heart ground to a bloody pulp beneath the crushing weight of his betrayal.

The visceral, tearing agony was so intense it made her want to die.

She collapsed onto the mattress, curling into a tight ball as she clutched her fiercely aching chest.

She bit down on her lip, choking on the suffocating grief.

The sheer devastation wracked her body with violent tremors. The veins in her neck strained as she fought a losing battle to suppress the raw, animalistic wails tearing through her throat, escaping into the quiet room in broken, jagged gasps.

The tears were an unstoppable flood.

Her agonizing breakdown was completely drowned out by the steady roar of the shower.

Slowly, the violent storm of grief burned itself out, leaving behind nothing but a hollow, icy void.

The water in the bathroom abruptly shut off.

She knew Pierce would step out any second, and the thought of looking at his face literally made her skin crawl. He disgusted her.

She grabbed her keys and fled the room.

She hadn't even driven out of the neighborhood when her phone lit up on the console.

It was Pierce. She stared at his name with absolute revulsion, slammed her foot on the gas, and sped out of Golden Sands Cove.

**

At Quinn's apartment complex.

Quinn was sitting on her living room floor, buried in case files, when the doorbell suddenly rang.

Her fingers froze over the keyboard. It was almost midnight. Who the hell was at her door?

As a woman living alone, her survival instincts flared immediately.

Riley pulled it out, stared at Pierce's name, violently rejected the call, and powered the device completely off.

Watching the exchange, it clicked in Quinn's head. She was talking about Pierce.

She dragged Riley inside, pushed her onto the couch, and started wiping her face with a tissue. "Are you absolutely sure? Could there be a misunderstanding?"

Riley stared at her with dead, bloodshot eyes. "There isn't."

Quinn had only asked out of sheer disbelief. She knew Riley better than anyone. Riley wasn't prone to hysteria or jumping to conclusions; if she was saying it, she had absolute, irrefutable proof.

"Tell me everything," Quinn demanded.

Riley sat in silence until her breathing finally steadied, then began detailing the entire grotesque timeline of Pierce's deception.

By the time she finished, Quinn's eyes were blazing red with fury. "You went through all this absolute hell by yourself, and you didn't tell me?!"