Page 63 of Into The Rabbit Hole

Chapter 12

Wade

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“Thanks for comingby to see me,” his fathersaid.

Wade looked around at all the boxes and white sheets covering everything in the living room. Everything was packed away, as if they were moving house. There were no maids, no grounds men. Just himself and hisfather.

A house that used to have so much life was now beingemptied.

“I came to say goodbye,” Wade said. He returned his gaze back to his father and found it difficult to look at him. Really difficult. As he did, he couldn’t help but imagine his father killing that woman. All that time he’d been away with Chloe he tried not to think about what was happening here. He knew the moment he did, it would drain himout.

Now that he was back and facing his father, he actually felt worse than he could have thought. So muchworse.

His worst nightmare was to become this man. To be so power hungry that he killed for it and did all manner of immoral things to ensure hiswealth.

“I’m sorry, son,” his fathersaid.

Wade shook his head. “I never thought that you were capable of such terriblethings.”

“There’s nothing I can say to make this better,” he stated, shaking hishead.

And there was nothing further Wade wanted to say to him. Nothing could make anything better, and asking more questions would only lead to further distress. Wade only came on account of his father being there for him after he was arrested. That was all. No special goodbyes needed to be said on his end. Nothing that would signify that he missed him or would be sad to see such an end tohim.

“Goodbye, Dad.” That was goodbye forever. For him, this was where they parted. He’d thought about it before coming here and decided that this was going to be his cutoff point, where he said goodbye forever. It was a shame, but this was what heneeded.

The solemn look in his father’s face showed that he seemed to understand Wade’smeaning.

“Goodbye, son, and congratulations on yourengagement.”

“Thanks.” Wade politely nodded, turned away from him, and walkedout.

That was it. He knew his father would be picked up later today and taken to jail, where he would be questioned fully and charged because of hisconfession.

The news today had been all over his parents’ divorce, so he figured there was nothing new. It was well played, Aaron had played the game well and built up the information he released until he finalized it with the news of what truly happened to hismother.

This next part felt like they were waiting to be thrown into an arena. Gladiator-style, where they’d have to fight for their lives as Aaron and Zeek toyed withthem.

Wade got back to the house and, since Chloe wasn’t there, he decided to work on his bike and give it a good servicing. It didn’t need it, he was just trying to find something to distract himselfwith.

An hour into it he’d decided on ordering a new wheel and different lights to jazz it up a little. On his way out he saw Wes pulling up onto the drive in his Range Rover with a worried look on hisface.

Wes jumped out and rushed up to him. “Wade, have you seenTaylor?”

“She’s supposed to be with Chloe at the beach house.” Chloe specifically said they were all going to hang out theretoday.

“No. I’ve been there twice. Kelly was there and she said she left Chloe and Taylor there earlier when she went food shopping. I can’t find them anywhere and neither of them are answering their phones.” Wes lookedpanicked.

Wade whipped out his phone and called Chloe first. There was no answer. Her phone just went to its voicemail. He called Taylor and the same thing happened to her phone,too.

He spoke to Chloe at around three, just before he went to see his father, and it was nearly sixnow.

“Did you go toRunway?”

“I’ve been everywhere.Runway, the usual hang outs, the salon, spa, everywhere. Kelly said they had no plans to do anything and, if they did, they would have let her know because they were waiting for her to comeback.”

That made his nerves prickle and his stomach harden as the knots of fear began toform.