Page 49 of Big Red

This isn’t over by a long shot. Declan is far too obsessed with Alice just to accept losing her. As for Chloe, I really don’t understand her angle. Six years is a long time to be gone, just to pop back up, acting as if she suddenly wants to be a mother. I don’t think I could ever harm Chloe, but if she tries anything that will put Cindy and Colt at risk, then all bets are off.

When we arrive at Viper and Cara’s house, Viper is standing on the porch, holding the door open, with his daughter Angel in his arms.

“Daddy day?” I guess.

“You know it.” He chuckles, shaking his head as we walk into the house.

“What’s daddy day?” Alice asks, looking between Viper and me.

“She gets in these moods where she only wants to deal with me. Most of the time, I can accommodate that, but if I can’t, she is pissed at the world.”

“Aww, that’s so sweet,” Alice coos.

“Only to a certain extent. She won't even let me hug my own husband.” Cara scoffs, walking into the living room with a file in her hand.

Alice giggles at the jealous tone lacing Cara's words. We sit on the couches in their living room, and Cara hands me a file. When I open my mouth, Cara holds up a finger. She grabs a pair of headphones and a tablet off the table and gives them to Angel. She quickly puts on the headphones and begins clicking away on the tablet.

“I don’t need her to hear any of this.”

My stomach turns at the thought of how bad this is. I have a gut-wrenching feeling that whatever is in this file is about to put the nail in the coffin for Chloe. I open the folder and Cara follows suit.

“So, on this first page is Chloe's very lengthy arrest record from the time she left. She has been arrested for possession of drugs, petty theft, drunk driving, and soliciting prostitution.”

“What the fuck?”

I sit back, reading the words she spoke, not wanting to believe this. Chloe was always wild but never like this. I don’t even know who this woman is. I’m trying to find a slither of hope in this chaos. I’m getting nothing. I would love to believe that maybe she cleaned up her life and now wanted to be in the kids' lives, but I know that isn’t the case. Her husband is a pedophile,and she still wants to take them around him. She even said Cindy's feelings don’t matter.

Sighing, I rub my forehead and motion for Cara to continue.

“Four months ago, she and her then-boyfriend, Blaine, were attacked outside of a club, resulting in his death.”

“How did he die?”

“A bullet to the head.”

“Man, what the hell is really going on?” I’m becoming frustrated because none of this is what I was expecting. I don’t know what I thought I would learn, but all of this sure ain’t it.

“Based on her statement, they were attacked once they approached their car. They were both beaten and her boyfriend was shot. They did have camera footage that I did look into, but from the angle of the camera, you can’t get a good look at the killers. You do get a glimpse of Chloe's face as they approached them. Chloe knew the men who killed Blaine.”

“How do you know?” Alice asked, sitting forward.

“The look of recognition was on both of their faces. But that’s not the craziest part. In Chloe’s statement to the police, she told them she had been with Blaine for eight years.”

This might as well have been a record-scratch moment. Did she just say Chloe had been with this man for eight years?

Colton is seven. If the little man didn’t look exactly like me, I would question whether he was mine. It wouldn’t have mattered either way. Colt is mine, and a DNA test wouldn’t change anything.

Chloe is dead to me. We still have more things to go over in the file, but her fate is sealed. If she tries running up on me again, I will have no mercy for her.

“This is crazy,” Viper says, shaking his head.

“That’s an understatement. How the hell does she go from being with a man for eight years to being married in four months?”

“All I know is once she married Jeffery, he paid to have her records sealed just like his,” Cara informs me.

“You can do that?” Alice asks, astonished, turning to me with worried eyes.

“Money talks and bullshit runs a marathon,” Cara says.

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