Page 11 of His Wicked Revenge

“Yeah, we are sitting at the kitchen table. I’ll put you on speaker.” The sound of her setting the phone on the table hits my ear before she says, “Okay. He is here.”

“What’s going on?” My dad asks Chloe.

“Your son is calling from prison,” she says, and I hear a sharp “What?” from him.

“I don’t have enough time to explain the whole thing, so I’ll give you the Cliff’s Notes.” I swallow hard, preparing myself to be honest with them. “I helped my patient escape, and I got caught. I’m serving up to five years.”

“You what?” They both yell at once.

“I’m sorry. I want to explain it all to you—I really do—but there is a time limit on how long I can use the phone.”

“You helped your patient escape?” Dad huffs in disbelief.

“You are going to be in prison for five years?” The tone in Chloe's voice changes rapidly as if all of the pain and sorrow that has been eating her alive over the past few days, the feeling that she has been trying so hard to suppress, is now rising to the surface because of everything I just told her. “Leo, what the hell were you thinking?”

I shake my head and say, “I don’t know.”

“Mom just died!” Chloe reminds me of the gut-wrenching reality I’ve been trying not to think about.

I can hear the hurt in her voice and feel it in my chest as the emotions spewing from her rip at my heart. On top of being in prison, I can’t think about how my mother died.

“We are all going through a shit time, and you do this?”

“I’m sorry, Chloe. I don’t know what I was thinking.” I sigh.

“We needed you!” Her voice cracks, but she gains the courage to speak again, and this time, her sadness turns into a raging fire. “Life has been hard after Mom passed, and I have been struggling! I needed my big brother to lean on and grieve with, and you chose to be selfish and not think about our family and the heartache we are experiencing!” There is a sniffle on the other end, telling me she is now crying. “How the hell am I supposed to tell Carter, who just lost his grandmother, that he won’t be seeing his uncle for five years?”

“Chloe,” my father says, trying to calm her down.

“No!” The kitchen chair screeches, and I hear the moment the wooden chair falls over at her abruptness. Her voice grows distant as she tells my dad, “I don’t want to talk to him right now.”

I listen to her footsteps leave the kitchen until I hear the faint sound of a door slamming upstairs.

“You messed up, Leo,” my dad says.

“I know.” I hang my head low, tears filling my eyes. “I wish I could take it all back.”

That annoying robot voice cuts into the call, telling us we only have a minute left. I peek over my shoulder to see the line growing longer. There weren’t this many guys here when I came to the phones.

The automated message ends, and I hear my dad sigh before he says, “I want to know what the hell happened. Can I come to see you?”

“Yes.” I jump at the opportunity for him to visit me.

“Okay. I’ll figure out when I can make it, and I’ll try to calm your sister down.”

“I would love it if she visited, too, so I can explain everything.” No matter how badly I want Chloe to visit, I know it is a long shot.

I understand the reasoning behind her not wanting to see me. She may not be ready to hear what I have to say or to look me in the eye. And I don’t expect her to be able to forgive me for what I’ve done.

And quite honestly, I'm not sure if I am ready to face her either.

Is this what Veronica felt like when I mentioned her sister visiting? All these nerves compiling in your body at the thought of seeing someone you love after you’ve done something unforgivable.

I force her out of my mind because just the thought of her leaves me feeling disgusted.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

It is the last six words I hear before the line cuts out. I don’t waste another second standing there because if I do, the guys behind me will get irritated, and when they get irritated, they like to show you just how angry they are… with their fists.