Golden Cage Mommy Mutiny (Elyse) novel Chapter 44

Chapter 1

Six years after our divorce, I saw Ethan Cole again a the City Police Department, where he was giving a training lecture while I was filing my father’s death certificate.

He was handing out wedding favors to the younger officers when our eyes met, quiet and sharp in a

way that stole the air between us.

I turned to leave before he softly called my name and asked, “Chloe, do you still hate me?”

I told him no.

There was a time when he had risen from the bodyguard to a celebrated undercover agent, while I fell from a privileged daughter to someone who lived behind a different name.

Back then, I did hate him, but only because I had once loved him; six years had worn that love down

to nothing.

***

A young officer waved people over. “Come on, everyone, grab some of Captain Cole’s wedding

candy!”

Ethan stopped him just as he tried to hand one to me, then hurried after me down the hall.

“What are you here for? I can help-” he asked, a little breathless.

I lifted the paperwork in my hand and cut him off. “It’s already taken care of.”

We had met in this precinct twice–once today, and once when my father was brought in and

charged.

Ethan caught my sleeve, stopping me. “Chloe… how have you been?”

I glanced at the fresh wedding ring on his finger before answering.

“I’m fine.”

He withdrew his hand as if burned.

Dylan’s car pulled up to the curb, and I glanced back at Ethan.

“My husband’s here to pick me up,” I said.

His voice scraped low.

“…Okay. Goodbye.”

I didn’t answer.

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As we drove off, he stayed rooted on the sidewalk until his tall figure finally shrank out of the rearview mirror and disappeared.

Dylan shot me a sideways look.

“Seriously, Chloe? Using me as your human shield That cop’s eyes were practically glued to you.”

He squinted. “And why does he look so damn familiar?”

I smoothed the creases on the paperwork in my hand.

“Ethan Cole.”

Dylan jerked his head toward me, stunned.

“Ethan Cole? That Ethan Cole? The criminal–profiling star–TV interviews, academy textbooks,

national awards–Ethan Cole?”

“Watch the road,” I reminded him.

He kept rambling.

“No wonder he made Captain so young. Wasn’t he the undercover guy who took down that huge crime syndicate years ago? The boss’s name was something… Feng? Fang? Something with an F-”

“Wynn,” I said.

“Oh–right. Wynn. Strange last name…”

He froze mid–sentence.

I answered the question he was too scared to ask.

“Yeah. That was my father.”

The man Ethan personally put behind bars.

Dylan scratched his head, mortified.

“Sorry, Chloe… I didn’t mean to bring up something that heavy.”

Actually it didn’t hurt anymore.

Talking about it felt less like revisiting trauma and more like retelling someone else’s biography.

Silence settled until Dylan’s eyes drifted to the form in my lap.

“…So what exactly did you handle at the station today?”

My fingers brushed the bold black word–DEATH.

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“I finalized my father’s records,” I said.

He had died two weeks earlier–collapsed in prison diagnosed with late–stage stomach cancer, granted medical parole but gone within three months.

His last words were that the guilt was his alone, tha Ethan had done his duty, but the lie he told me… for that, my father wished he’d had the strength to kill him.

He never blamed me–not once–even though he refused more than a hundred visitation requests over the past six years. I always knew why. He didn’t want me carrying the label of a criminal’s daughter for the rest of my life.

The thought tightened my chest, so I exhaled and turned to Dylan.

“Want to hear my story?” I asked.

The daughter of the biggest organized–crime boss in the state.

The ex–wife of the man the country called a hero.

Two identities that should never have belonged to the same person–and yet here I was.