Aggro - CoraLee June Page 0,128

was more a numbers guy. And by numbers guy, I meant I opened my wallet and smiled before surfing my day away.

The logo on the front said Uncle in big, bold letters. “Is this some new brand? I never understand the trends.”

“Not a brand,” Breeze said, staring expectantly at me. I looked at it again.

Wait. Holy fuck.

Uncle.

UNCLE.

MOTHERFUCKING UNCLE?!

“You’re pregnant?!” I asked before dropping the shirt and rushing her for a hug.

“Eight weeks!” she squealed. “Had my first appointment today.” She pulled a sonogram out of nowhere and handed it to me. It looked like a blob of black and gray, but I smiled like a fucking idiot. “You’re going to be an uncle, Chase. A really good uncle.”

I started mentally going through a list of things babies needed. Shit, should I buy a minivan? Babies couldn’t sit safely in Mercedes convertibles. I’d also need a crib at my house for when the little noodle came over. Clothes, too. And bottles. And toys. Oh shit, I was definitely buying the lot next door and building a house. Uncle Chase was gonna be there for everything. Every fucking thing. I wouldn’t be like my asshole parents. God help this child if she’s a girl. Dates? Hah! No way that’s happening. Oh god, I’m going to vomit. This was a lot of responsibility. How was Kai not completely shitting his pants?

“Oh, I’m totally freaking out,” Kai said with a grin.

“Shit. Did I say that out loud?” I asked.

“Yes,” Breeze replied with an easy roll of her eyes. “And if you’re buying the lot next door, you better have that house built before the baby comes, because I don’t want to deal with hammering all day when we have a napping infant.”

“I’ll get it done ASAP,” I promised. Hell, I’d park Kai’s old bus there if I had to. “You’d be cool with that, though? Me moving next door?”

“You’re here all the time as it is,” Kai deadpanned. “Might as well save the gas money.”

“And I won’t say no to having a sitter close by, though you might have to fight my mom for time with the baby,” Breeze added.

“I’m going to be an uncle,” I choked out. I wasn’t trying to be an emotional idiot, but it was something that hit me deep. I couldn’t help but think of Violet and her baby, and how I would have been just as excited for her and Sebastian.

Kai grabbed me and gave me a good old-fashioned bro hug. I tried not to get tears on his shirt, but whatever, I was fucking happy. “Congrats, guys. I’m really happy for you.”

I had a family. I had everything I ever wanted.

Now, I just needed Sophia.

Epilogue

Allison Shirley

The Night of Violet’s Murder

I wasn’t the type of woman to snoop through my husband’s phone. I wanted to trust him, I really did. We had years of a deep, profound love that survived loss, infertility, college, late night shifts at the hospital, and ramen noodle dinners because we couldn’t afford anything else.

It made me sick to doubt him, but things had been so distant between us. He hadn’t touched me in months, and not for lack of trying. I ached for him. I teased him in the shower. I stripped naked, baring my body with a smirk. He barely glanced my way. Once upon a time, we had a fairy tale romance. He swept me off my feet. Maybe this was what happened to couples. Maybe we were just at that inevitable stage of marriage where passion was something you scheduled for birthdays and holidays.

Or maybe there was something else.

Brian left his cell here while working at the shop. I wondered if he did it on purpose. Maybe this was his way of telling me.

It was too easy to find the message app they used. It was too painful to read the dirty texts. I sobbed, drenching the screen of his phone with my tears. I couldn’t imagine this was happening. Twenty-one years of marriage down the drain. And with Violet Jones? She was a beautiful girl, but she was a girl nonetheless.

I’d known her since she was three years old. Brian and I practically raised her and Chase since their parents were selfish absentees that couldn’t be bothered to participate in their children’s lives. Was my husband a predator? A pervert? A...a pedophile? I could have crushed his phone in my fist. How could he do this to me? I knew that Violet had been lingering at our house when