CHAPTER 40

And now, looking at Chloe, watching her stare out of the window to where Milka was playing with Dad on the beach, I wondered if there was going to be a romance to go along with that scandal at all.

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Chloe’s head poped up in the tree house. She gave me a weak smile and climbed up, then sat next to me. She stared out of the window to where Milka was playing on the beach.

Our daughter was running circles around my family on the sand. Bray already had to go change clothes because he underestimated the splash power of a toddler in the shallows.

At least that put a smile on Chloe’s face. She had been stone-faced since that morning, her stare scarily intense. I didn’t blame her. I could practically taste the fear radiating off her. I could see the uncertainty whenever she moved, because her hands trembled, like she was freezing and couldn’t warm up.

I rested my arm over her shoulders and snatched up her hand. Her fingers s