Page 117 of How to Get Even

‘It’s Chase,’ he explained.

‘I know who it is. What do you want?’ Astrid asked, tones clipped and harsh.

Chase rolled his shoulders.

‘I wanted to apologise.’

‘Then why are you calling me? Bella?—’

‘Not to Bella. I oweyouan apology.’

There was silence on the phone. It didn’t bode well, but at least she hadn’t hung up. He sighed, muffling the microphone. ‘I should have explained what happened when Annalise found us in the hotel room. I’m sorry, you deserved not only an explanation, but better from me.’

‘Yes, I did,’ Astrid said simply.

Chase nodded, even though she couldn’t see it. ‘I was not… I did notconsidermyself married to Annalise at that point. We were already in the middle of a divorce, but I should have told you that from the very beginning. And at the very least, I should have explained after what happened. I am sorry.’

He heard Astrid’s sigh. ‘Thank you. For saying that. I… It put me in a not-so-great place for a while.’

‘Astrid—’

‘But,’ she pressed on when he would have apologised again, ‘that doesn’t excuse the fact that we jumped to conclusions and exacted our revenge without the full story. And we really are –Ireally am – sorry for the damage that was done by the article. It wasn’t right.’

Chase let her words sink in.

‘But if you want to be angry with anyone, it should beme. Not Bella,’ Astrid insisted.

Bella.

Bella who he couldn’t stop thinking of, no matter how betrayed he felt by her.

Ask her. Ask her.

He didn’t want to know. But he did.

‘Is she… okay?’

‘No,’ Astrid said, with the kind of blunt honesty he deserved.

‘Where is she?’ he asked, suspicion growing in his gut.

‘She’s gone, Chase.’

He’d told her to go, hadn’t he?

‘I just?—’

‘No,’ Astrid said, talking to him like he was five. ‘You don’t get to say what you said to her and it to all be okay.’

‘Hey,’ Chase called out. ‘Iwas the one wronged.’

‘No. She didn’t wrong you, Chase,’ Astrid said. ‘She made a mistake. And you punished her for it. So, if you do want to know how she is, where she is, you’d better have a good handle onwhyyou want to know. Because if you hurt her again, what Bella did to you was child’s play in comparison to what I’ll do to you.’

With that Astrid hung up the phone, leaving Chase open-mouthed and fists clenching.

He got up and paced the studio.

Had he?

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