FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS (Ophelia Corrigan) novel Chapter 118

CHAPTER 118

AMIE

I waited until Lily finished dinner and ran off to the living room before I pulled Chloe aside.

“Chloe, you got a minute?”

Her smile faltered.

“Of course.”

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We stepped into the kitchen. Simon was still holed up in his office upstairs, and the kids were occupied in the living room. It was the best shot I was going to get.

Even so, I felt weirdly uncomfortable.

“There’s something kind of delicate I wanted to talk to you about,” I started. “And I don’t want you to take this personally.”

Chloe went still.

“It’s about some of the tops you wear here.”

The color drained from her face.

I pushed ahead before I lost my nerve.

“Some of them are pretty thin, and since you don’t wear a bra… sometimes they end up showing more than you might realize. Including the piercings.”

Chloe blinked.

For a second, she looked like she’d stopped breathing.

“You saw?”

“Chloe, I’m not judging you. I swear. You can wear whatever you want. I just think that, while you’re working, inside the apartment…”

A scream ripped through the apartment.

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“MY BUNNY!”

We both turned.

Lily appeared in the hallway, crying.

“My bunny’s gone!”

Chloe shifted completely in a heartbeat.

“Hey, hey. Come here.”

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FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS: MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS

Lily ran into her arms.

e’s gone! Snow’s gone!”

“The stuffed one?”

Lily nodded, sobbing,

“I put him on my bed and now he’s not there!”

Simon appeared in the kitchen doorway.

“What happened?”

“Snow disappeared,” Chloe explained.

“Who’s Snow?”

Lily cried harder.

“My bunny!”

“Right. Of course. Snow. How could I forget?”

Chloe crouched down in front of her.

“Lily, look at me. He can’t have gone far because his little legs are about this big.”

She held up two fingers.

Lily sniffled.

“He doesn’t walk.”

“Exactly. That makes our investigation a lot easier.”

Simon looked at me.

I almost smiled.

Almost.

In under five minutes, Chloe had organized a search party that involved all of us.

We found Snow behind the couch.

Lily clutched him to her chest like she’d just recovered a son lost at war.

“He fell!”

“I knew he didn’t run away,” Chloe said.

“Can you put him to bed with me?”

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“I can.”

grabbed her hand and tugged her down the hall.

Simon followed.

So did I.

By the time we reached the room, Lily was already under the covers. Chloe tucked Snow in beside her smoothed the blanket over both of them, and brushed a strand of hair off the girl’s face.

“He stays on this side. That way he won’t fall again.”

“Will you stay till I fall asleep?”

“I will.”

Simon leaned against the doorframe.

“Guess I’ve been officially replaced.”

Lily yawned.

“Miss Chloe tells better stories.”

Chloe laughed softly.

Ten minutes later, Lily was out.

We slipped out quietly.

Chloe was the last one.

She closed the door carefully and took two steps down the hall.

Then she stopped.

Her hand flew to her mouth.

And she started to cry.

My stomach dropped.

“Chloe?”

She wiped her face quickly.

“Sorry. It’s nothing.”

Another tear fell.

And another.

My stomach sank.

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FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS

“Is this about our talk?”

Simon looked at me.

Chloe shook her head immediately.

“No. Jamie, please.”

“What talk?” Simon asked.

Chloe took a deep breath, but it came out shaking.

“Jamie just talked to me about my clothes. Some of my tops. About me not wearing a bra. She was really polite, Mr. Hart. She didn’t do anything wrong.”

Simon stayed quiet.

Chloe tried to smile.

She couldn’t.

“It’s just that… it brought some stuff back up for me.”

“What stuff?” I asked.

She dropped her eyes.

“I grew up in a really small town. My family was very religious. Church every Sunday, Bible study, everyone knowing everyone’s business. My dad was… very traditional.”

Her voice started to break.

“I developed early. And some of the women at church started giving me a hard time. They said my clothes were inappropriate even when I was wearing the same things as the other girls.”

She wrapped her arms around herself.

“Then I realized it wasn’t about the clothes. It was about their husbands.”

Simon frowned.

“They didn’t like me around them. If a man talked to me for five minutes, his wife would look at me like I’d done something. They started saying I liked attention. That I was asking for it.”

A tear slid down her cheek.

“I was scared to even smile.”

My chest tightened.

“Chloe…”

“Then they made up a rumor that I was having an affair with a married man from the church.”

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She started crying for real.

never touched him.”

Her voice cracked.

“I swear.”

“We believe you,” I said.

“But nobody believed me.”

She covered her mouth, trying to choke back a sob.

“When my dad found out…”

Chloe stopped.

Simon took a step forward.

“You don’t have to keep going.”

“He hit me.”

The whole hallway seemed to go cold.

“Chloe…” I whispered.

“He hit me. A lot.”

She was crying so hard now she could barely get the words out.

“I kept saying it was a lie. That I hadn’t done anything. But he said I’d brought shame on our family. Then he kicked me out.”

My heart dropped.

“That night?”

She nodded.

“I was hurt. Alone. I thought… I thought I was going to die.”

I didn’t think twice.

I just walked over and hugged her.

Chloe collapsed into my arms.

Sobs shook her body as she grabbed the back of my shirt.

“Nobody believed me,” she repeated against my shoulder. “Nobody.”

I’m so sorry. God, Chloe, I’m so sorry.”

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FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS: MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS

I ran my hand up and down her back.

Simon stayed a few steps behind.

Quiet.

Watching.

After a while, Chloe managed to breathe.