Page 71 of Whenever You Call

If Cole wasn’t already dead, I’d have killed him myself.

I’d have stormed into his life, wrapped my hands around his scrawny throat, and shown that cold-hearted prick what it felt like to go up against a real man. I’d show him physical pain. A favor returned for all the emotional trauma he’d put upon his innocent family. The only guilt I held over not being able to save him now lingered because of them; Hannah and Bella. Because, despite everything going on, it would have been easier for them to deal with it while he was still here rather than them having to go through this alone.

My fists curled, and my hands itched to be launched at something as I watched Hannah pacing around, dealing with her aching heart again, while fielding calls from the band’s publicist, manager, and even some of the members themselves.

I hadn’t heard the specific details, only that another report had come out from a model who claimed to have been having an affair with Cole Newman behind Hannah’s back. Seeing Hannah’s world collapse in front of her again had me turning away and forcing my own feelings of fury down.

To make it even worse, Bella had now woken from her lazy slumber, dragging her feet into the ridiculously large kitchen with her hair wild and tangled, and her eyes still sleepy enough for her to rub at them.

She didn’t know what had happened, and we had to keep it that way.

Livia had originally gone to pull Bella away from Hannah, but I wasn’t equipped for any of this. I didn’t have a clue how to console Hannah without telling her what a waste of fucking oxygen her husband had been, and that definitely wasn’t the right thing to say or do then. Instead, with a forced smile on my face, I beckoned Bella over to the other side of the backyard, far away from the drama indoors that Hannah and Livia could no longer avoid.

It fucking killed me for both of them.

Bella showed me every one of her inflatable toys as we strolled around the pool, her leading the way, walking backward in front of me as she looked up with excited eyes and a never-ending chatter that somehow made me smile, despite everything happening around us.

“Do you always have your hands in your pocket, Mr. Logan?” she asked as she skipped backward, pushing her bedhead away from her face with the palms of her hands.

“I’ve never really thought about it before. Why? Does it bother you?”

“I don’t care. I’m just six, and six-year-olds have a lot of questions. Mom says not all of them have to make sense.”

“Fair,” I said in a huff of laughter, watching as she twirled around without a care in the world. “What’s next then?”

“Do you want to see Daddy’s tree?” she asked brightly, not giving me a chance to answer before she hooked her arm through my forearm and began to pull me toward it. “Come on. Let me show you. Here it is. Look at it, Mr. Logan. Look!”

There it stood, a beautiful green Californian Pepper Tree, a part of nature now decorated with a long, black wire hanging down from one of the low branches and a microphone attached to the end of it. Bella let me go to scoop the microphone into her hand, turning it the right way up.

She brought it to her lips. “Testing, testing. Daddy in Heaven. Do you receive me?” She turned to me with a bright white smile, as though this was an everyday occurrence, and a six-year-old girl having to talk to her dead father through an unplugged microphone wasn’t enough to tear my heart in two.

Bella didn’t deserve this.

Hannah didn’t deserve this, either, but here we fucking were.

Bella continued to talk to Cole, and I glanced around everywhere to take it all in. The perfectly manicured and landscaped private backyard. The patio eating area with the expensive canopy. I looked over the white building that must have cost them millions, down to the open glass doors where the outlines of Hannah and Livia could be seen pacing, the cell glued to Hannah’s ear as she ran a hand through her hair and held it at the back of her head.

“Look at everything you had, you selfish son of a bitch,” I whispered to Cole, hoping that if this really was the way to speak to the dead, he heard me.

“What was that, Mr. Logan?”

Turning back to Bella, I strapped on a smile and dropped to my haunches, reaching up to place a hand on her arm. “I was just admiring your backyard. I couldn’t think of a better place or a better tree for you to talk to your dad.”

“You really like it? Even without the annoying but funny cat here.”

“Especially without the cat.”

Her whole face lit up as she studied me, but then a raised voice from inside the house caught Bella’s attention, making her frown.

“Hey,” I said. “What’s that look for?”

Her innocent eyes turned back to me, holding me captive. “She cries a lot now.”

“Who does?”

“Mommy.”

Something sharp squeezed at my heart again. “She does, huh?”

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