Page 51 of The Challenge

But that’s where I had to draw the line for now. I shook my head. “I’m not there yet.” I placed my hand on his arm. “But I promise I’ll try to get there.”

“Good enough for me.” He smiled. “Where have you been staying?”

I took in a deep breath. “Ready for this?”

Dad raised a brow. “Yeah?”

I explained how I’d ended up living with Evan Ricci.

“Wow. What a coincidence that you rented his house. I’m glad to hear Evan’s doing well. I’ve always been sorry for the way things ended with him.”

A chill moved through me. “What are you talking about?”

“When he moved out. The way we left things.”

I blinked. “What do you mean?”

Dad gave me a look. “After what happened between him and your sister.”

Chapter 20

CHLOE

My hands shook as I gripped the steering wheel when I left Dad’s. The last moments of my visit with him had been a blur. After he dropped that bombshell, I’d lost the ability to think.

Overcome with jealousy, I reached for my phone to dial my sister. This couldn’t wait until I got back to Evan’s. Plus, I needed to talk to her in private to hear exactly what happened from her first.

It kept ringing. There was no answer.

I couldn’t get myself to leave a voicemail because what would I even say?

Instead, I kept dialing over and over in the hopes that she’d pick up. She might’ve been at her nanny job, where she worked all hours. Finally, on what seemed like the hundredth attempt, she answered.

“Chloe, what’s going on? I was in the middle of changing the baby and figured I would call you back when I was done. I just put him down to sleep. How come you keep—”

“I need to talk to you,” I said, cutting her off.

“Is it Mom? Did something happen?”

“Everything is fine with Mom. I didn’t mean to scare you. I just left Dad’s, actually.”

“You went to see Dad?” She sounded understandably surprised.

“I did.”

“Wow. Okay. How was it?”

“It was fine, and I’ll fill you in on that later. There’s something I need to talk to you about first.”

“What?”

My heart thundered in my chest. “Dad mentioned something that I never knew before. I don’t know if you specifically kept it from me, but I need you to be honest.”

“Jeez. Okay. What the hell is it?”

I slowed my speed a bit as I continued to drive. “It has to do with Evan Ricci.”

“All right. What about him?”