Page 16 of Into The Rabbit Hole

Her heart went out to Merissa. She’d only shown Chloe anger and malice, but the reasoning behind that was understandable and she didn’t deserve todie.

The minute Chloe saw that broadcast she’d practically flown to her car, and here she was now, driving to the policestation.

It was just after seven and the morning traffic was just building up as people made their way to work. If she’d been any later she would have gotten stuck in thetraffic.

She could just see the police station ahead of her now. There were reporters outside and officers trying to control them. She didn’t know how the hell she was going to get past. There were so many of them. Toomany.

But she triedanyway.

She parked and ran over to the first officer who was just guarding the entrance to the station. He was a tall, muscular man with dark blonde hair, like Wade’s, and agoatee.

“Please can I go in? I’m family,” were her firstwords.

“I’m sorry but we can’t let anyone go in. You’ll have to make other arrangements,” the officer responded quiterudely.

“Please, is there no way I can get in?” she begged, but now he was just ignoringher.

Chloe did the next best thing. She called Regina, who answered after the firstring.

“Regina, I’m outside. I can’t get in,” Chloe blurted, tears streaming down hercheeks.

“Sweetie, don’t try. Head to the beach house. We’ll meet you there,” Regina instructed, her voice sounding weak and ragged. It was evident that she’d been crying,too.

“I need to see Wade,” Chloecried.

“You can’t.” Regina’s voice was so faint. “None of uscan.”

Her heart sank when she heard that. “They won’t let me seehim?”

She looked back to the building, scanning over it with all its windows and symmetrical shape. Wade was somewhereinside.

He was here, and she couldn’t seehim.

“Sweet girl, head back to the beach house. I’ll explain everything then. Don’t try to get in. We’ll be there in about an hour.Okay?”

Chloe thought for a moment, then released the breath she’d been holding. “Okay,” she agreed. What else could shesay?

She continued to stare at the building before her with all the people milling about. It was horrible. Just days ago she had to face reporters when the whole thing broke out about Taylor andRichard.

As harmful and as malicious as that was, this was so much worse. So muchworse.

She made her way back to her car where she allowed the tears to fall, cursing and blaming herself for the situation. Chloe must have stayed like that for a good twenty minutes before she was able to gather the strength to go to the beachhouse.

Kelly greeted her the minute she stepped out of her car, and true to her word, Regina was there within the hour, along with Brian andTaylor.

Chloe rushed into Regina’s arms and that was when she truly brokedown.

It was so bad that Regina had to take her out onto the terrace, away from everyone else, so they could talk. She filled Chloe in on what was happening with Wade, sending her worries into spirals of fear and hopelessness. There was nothing anyone could do. Not even Ben, who she knew was one of the very best lawyers anyone could ever get. Right now, guilt pointed at Wade. There was nothing that supported his testimony and nothing that supported his innocence. Not even the whole psycho issue. They thought the two incidents weren’t related and there was nothing to suggest a connection. Without the background of that problem, Wade had no alibi, no context to hisstory.

She didn’t know what they were going todo.

“I left him,” Chloe cried through her tears. Regina dabbed her eyes with a tissue. “How could I do that? This is all myfault.”

“Chloe, this is not your fault.” Regina shook her head. Her sea green eyes held a wealth of love andcompassion.

The dryness in her throat made it feel prickly and she struggled to talk. “It is. I found out what happened with Merissa and I left him.” She assumed Wade must have told Regina about his past with Merissa and theirbaby.

“He told me everything on Sunday,” Regina confessed. “Chloe, you’re his girlfriend and you probably acted like most women would after hearing something like that. You can’t blame yourself for any of this at all. This is bigger than just you leaving him because you found out about hispast.”