47. Justin
forty-seven
I’m in my office, crossing off my to-do list, when Cassandra comes in uninvited and sits in front of me. Schedule next community dinner. Check.
“So, how does it feel, being in Chloe’s shoes these days?” she asks.
“What now?” Place job announcements for extras during foliage. Check.
“I hear the Wards and you had a conversation last night? And Chloe’s parents were there too?”
I sit back in my chair, twirling my pen, wondering where she’s going with all her questioning.
“And I was at Easy Monday this morning.” She scrutinizes my face. “No? Nothing?”
“You lost me there, Cass,” I admit.
“Where’s Chloe?”
My blood pressure pumps up. “Why?”
“You don’t know where she is?”
“She had a tough night Friday. Like you said—her parents, the Wards. Lots of things came out in the open. Weekend was crazy busy at the restaurant. She’s sleeping it out.”
“Not anymore she’s not.”
“What’s going on?”
“You know who I saw at Easy Monday? Chloe.”
I shrug. “It’s her favorite hangout. Can you please get to the point? I’m pretty—”
“And Gisele.”
This doesn’t sound good, though I’m not sure how or why. Chloe has been nothing but over the top gracious to Gisele, whether I’m there to witness it or not. “Okay.” I throw my pen on the desk and steeple my fingers.
“Gisele was on the phone, or maybe pretending to be. Outside by the river. Right on the other side of the bush where Chloe was sitting. Going on and on about what a wonderful father you’re going to be.”
Shit.
“Explaining how you’re going to couples’ therapy—”
What the fuck? “I’m not—”
“Explaining how you’re working on becoming a real family. How you’re going to Lamaze classes together…”
A real family? La—what? What the hell is that?
“What the fuck, Cass?”
“Is any of that true, Justin? I’m not judging. It’s your right to want to build a life with the mother of your child, instead of with the woman who truly loves you.”
I push my chair back and roar, “What the hell?”
“So it’s not true. Thank god. Sit.”
I’m not sitting. “What happened?” I pull out my phone and call Chloe, but it goes straight to voice mail.
Cassandra continues. “Gisele seems to have a warped relationship with the truth. Her problem, but you are going to have to fix things with Chloe. She was hurt, Justin, deeply hurt. Chloe… she’s not like Gisele. She’s honest and good to the core. She welcomed Gisele and tried to include her in the community immediately. And surely she did it for you, but she did it, and she was genuine about it. She’s not going to understand the depths of manipulation a woman like Gisele might go to.” She looks pensively away. “Gisele probably knew Chloe was there and could hear her. She’s trying to get rid of her. Did you do a paternity test?”
I’m pacing in my office, texting Chloe frantically, without being specific, just ‘Where are you’ and shit like that.
I just need my phone to light up with her name.
“You need to calm down, Justin.”
“You just told me the love of my life was smashed to pieces.” I throw the phone on my desk.
I think about calling Gisele to confront her.
Then I think better of it.
“Focus on how to build her back up when she comes to you, Justin.”
Jesus Christ. Is it that bad? Yes, of course it is. My Clover. “Tell me again what Gisele said.” And as Cassandra does, I feel in my bones the level of betrayal Clover must have felt. The immeasurable hurt. My whole body is thrumming with a desire for vengeance.
“Think real hard, Justin. Your focus isn’t Gisele, it’s Chloe.”
She’s right. Clover’s the only one who means anything to me.
The only one who means everything to me.
“How bad do you want her?”
A hollow sensation deepens where my Clover tattoo is etched on my skin. Where my heart beats, now frantically. The void is dizzying. “I need her, Cass. She’s truly my other half. I’m nothing without her.” My eyes sting.
Cassandra stands, her dreamy smile plays on her face, the one she has when she’s up to something, but fuck if anyone knows what it is. “Then make it happen.”
I stare at her as she leaves the room. “Make what happen?” I say to her back.
She looks over her shoulder at me. “You’ll figure it out.”
Make what the fuck happen. Tell her it’s not true?
She knows that. There’s no way. Why would she think I’d do all that shit with Gisele and not tell her?
She was tired is all.
After the weekend she had, no wonder.
Shit.
Now it hits me.
Friday night she found out her father pretty much lied to her for a big chunk of her life. Even when she came to work here in Emerald Creek, he didn’t find it necessary to be open about what had happened in the past.
Her own parents didn’t bother to tell her the whole truth.
Part of her world came crumbling around her. She felt betrayed. She was betrayed. She’d been betrayed once before, by her asshole boyfriend.
Now her parents.
And then she hears that bullshit from Gisele.
Fuck.
She must be torn to pieces.
I know what I want with Chloe. I want everything. I wasn’t joking when I said I wanted my daughters to look like her.
I want boys too.
With her.
The white picket fence if that’s her preference. Or a place in a city if that makes her happier. Hell, I’d learn how to sail a boat around the world for her if that was her jam.
She’ll make those decisions when the time comes.
Right now, I need to act fast.
Because when she comes to me—and she will—she needs to see I’m not messing around.
She needs to see, without a doubt, that her and me, we’re forever.
I pick up my phone and call my brother Ethan.
“I have a better idea,” he says when I tell him my plan. “Lemme talk to Lucas. See you up there in thirty minutes, an hour tops.”
Next, I get in my truck and call my parents. Then Autumn.
I spend the rest of the day working like crazy, hurting my back, nicking my finger, sunburning my neck, but with the help of what feels like the whole town, I get it done.
Then I get back to the apartment, take a shower, and wait for Chloe to reach out to me.
And she does.
Chloe:
We need to talk.