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Chapter 38

Daniel's P.O.V

It's been a week now since Angelo and I decided to cool off in our relationship. Yes, I said 'cool off'. It means that we did not officially broke up. We decided to give our relationship a rest and give Chloe a second chance.

I did not want to agree that we separate at all. Not even just for a day. However, I couldn't predict the future, like for how long this 'cool off' will take long. The only one thing that I am sure of is that Angelo will never be replaced in my heart until my last breath. I might sound cheesy and hormonal teenager but that is how I feel. I don't just love Angelo. I am in love with Angelo. A long life with him and Jared may not be enough, but a good life with them is good enough for me. I will make it happen.

Also, it's been a week since Chloe came back in our life. Three days after I first introduced her to Jared, I decided that I should let her moved in to our place. My mother did not want it and so as my friends, but after explaining them the situation, which involves Jared's welfare, they finally agreed to it. Their opinion matters the most to me, that's why I asked them for their advice.

I remember the day when I finally introduced Jared to Chloe, he got scared and asked for Angelo. The boy did not stop crying the entire day and he never ceased to ask for Angelo.

"I want Papa. Where is my Papa?" asked Jared, his eyes were red and swollen from crying all day.

My eyes were lining out with tears but I held it back. It just hurts to see my son hurting over someone that we both want to be with but we couldn't. "Jared," I cooed while holding him in my lap. His face was buried in my chest. "Papa is doing some important work, okay? We cannot disturbed him. But as soon as he finished his job, we will call him. Alright?"

Now, Jared is a smart boy and he knew that something was off. "He is not working. He left us." He cried.

I was surprised from the boy's innocent question. "Baby, Papa will never leave us. Do you trust Papa and me?" I asked.

Jared nodded, his face still buried in my chest and sobbing non-stop.

"I want you to trust Papa and me with this, okay? Now, your mommy Chloe wants to meet you. You came out from her tummy and she loves you." I explained, trying to be simple as possible for the kid to understand.

I waited for his reply but it never came. Next moment, I found out that he fell asleep possibly from exhaustion.

I tucked him in his bed and watched him sleep. Chloe came in with worried eyes.

"How is he?" she asked, walking her way to my side. Her perfume was burning my nose and I couldn't stand to keep still beside her. Why does she had to put too much perfume on her anyways? No wonder Jared got scared of her, she actually smelled like an overdosed perfume tester, if perfume can be overdosed.

I made my way out to the door then turn around to grab her attention. She was watching Jared like the boy was some kind of a rare artifact. "Leave him for now, let's give him some time to be familiarise with you. Come back again tomorrow." I turned on my heels and walked downstairs.

I knew she was following me from behind because of her heavy footsteps, as if she was a walking bulldozer. "Come back tomorrow? Aren't you gonna let me stay here?" she whined.

I looked at her, confused as ever. "Who told you that you can stay here?" I asked, my eyebrow furrowed in annoyance.

"Jared needs me. I want to be with him when he wakes up." She said, no trace of sincerity in her tone at all.

"Well guess what, he won't wake up until tomorrow. The poor boy was exhausted from crying. Give him some time to adjust." I walked up to the door and opened it for her, hoping that she'd get the idea that I wanted her to leave at that very moment.

She looked surprised. "You of all people should know that Jared being exposed to that faggot will make his life miserable." She grabbed her bag on the table and made her way to the door.

But before she full exited the door, I grabbed her arms a bit harsh. She looked at me with surprised in her eyes, her mouth agape. "Talk about Angelo like that again, and I swear you will never see your son again."

She harshly swatted her arms from my grip and stormed out to her car and drove off to wherever she lives.

The next day, she managed to convince Jared to take him to the theme park. Although I was reluctant to the idea, I must trust Chloe to take care of my son. I must believe that she would not let Jared get hurt. It's a step for giving her the chance.

Plus, it gave my mother a break for looking after my little boy. I know that she doesn't mind babysitting Jared at all. In fact, she wanted to go with Jared and Chloe all along. I managed to convince her that she should go out with her friends and relax.

I never seen Angelo in uni all day. I tried calling his mobile phone but only his answering machine was picking up. I also tried calling Veronica and she won't pick up either.

It has been a busy day but I never stopped calling Chloe every other minute to check on Jared.

"Seriously dude, chillax. Chloe will never let Jared into trouble or anything. He's her son after all." Alex snorted.

I sighed and diverted my focus on the lesson.

Alex and I continued planning about Jared's birthday party which was in just a couple of weeks. Alex generously offered that he would be the one to buy the balloons and other party stuffs like party hats and decorations. Angelo promised that he will be in Jared's birthday, and he agreed to celebrate his as well.

Later that day, we met with Dianne to ask her idea for the party. She as well offered to buy Jared's cake. Everyone agreed that I'll be the one to buy Angelo's cake.

"I didn't see Angelo today, did you guys hear anything from him?" I frowned, looking at the scribbled paper in front of me.

Alex and Dianne stopped on whatever they were doing. "Veronica told me that his father needed him to attend an important event for their company." Dianne informed.

I looked at her, confused. "Veronica is talking to you?" I asked.

"Uhh, yes." She answered. "And I guess she is not picking up your call. Yeah?"

Alex looked at Dianne confused as I was. Dianne heaved a sigh and started spinning the pen around her fingers. "Well, you see, Veronica's loyalty to Angelo is solid as titanium. That woman is crazy." She snickered. "She made a promised to Angelo that she will never talk to Angelo's ex ever. And technically, you are Angelo's ex right now."

What kind of logic was that? I knew Veronica was loyal and protective over Angelo, but she could at least spare me some trust. I wasn't upset with Veronica at all. I can completely understand her.

"But don't worry though," Dianne continued. "The crazy woman was excited for the birthday party. She even promised that she will provide a trampoline and bouncy castle for kids."

"Uhhhh..." Alex faked a shiver. "I have a feeling that Veronica will be the one to enjoy the trampoline and bouncy castle the most."

We burst out into laughing fits. And then, Dianne's phone went crazy. I mean literally crazy because her ringtone was screaming 'Crazy woman alert!'

"Ohh. Speak of the devil. She is calling" Dianne said without even looking at the screen to see who's calling.

While fishing out her phone, I asked her. "Is that your ringtone for her?"

"Why yes, and she loved it." She answered dismissively, still trying to find her phone inside her bag. "Found it!" she said triumphantly. She slide the answer button and put it into loud speaker. "Hi crazy women. You are on a loud speaker with the gang!"

We heard a coughing fit before Veronica spoke on the other line. "Are you bitches talking about me? I just choked on my pie here and won't stop coughing!" she slurred.

"Hi V!" I greeted with eagerness.

Veronica gasped on the other line. "Was that my best friend's ex? NOT TALKING TO HIM!" she screamed like a crazy woman she was. I love how childish this thing was going on.

I just shook my head and let her speak with Dianne. Well she was basically passing message from Dianne to me and vice versa until Dianne grew tired and told her that she had to go. That ended the conversation.

At around 5 o' clock in the evening, I got a message from Chloe that they are home. I said my good bye to the couple before stirring my car on the way home.

I was hoping to play with Jared, ask him about his birthday,  but it turned out that he was already asleep. I found him on his bed cuddling with a sleeping Chloe. Both of them were probably dead tired and fell asleep as soon as they lied down the bed. I watch both of them sleeping peacefully.

'If you didn't give up on us before, we could have been a happy family.' I thought, particularly to Chloe. I looked at Jared comfortably snuggled to Chloe. His face was really happy as he whispered "Mummy" in his dream.

I grabbed the blanket and put it over Chloe and Jared and let them sleep in peace.

Chloe and Jared's trip to 'happy place' as how Jared put it went on day after day. It didn't bother me at all knowing that my son was enjoying his time and was happy to know his mother. Perhaps, Chloe really deserved the second chance.

Everything was going on smoothly for almost a week until one night, Chloe slipped into my room. She moved out to our place and chose to have the room with Jared, which is just next door to my room. We offered her the guest room downstairs but she refused it. She said that she wanted to watch her son sleeping, as a payback over the year that she lost for not being with him.

I just finished taking a shower and walked out of my bathroom, a towel was wrapped on my waist. As soon as I got out of the bathroom, the familiar scent blasted my nose right away. I saw Chloe sitting on my bed with just underwear. I was surprised to see her in my room.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, gripping the towel in my waist as it almost fell off.

Chloe stood up and ventured her way towards me. She touched my bare chest and leaned closer to my ear, whispering seductively. "It seems you need some company tonight." She said.

I closed my eyes and shivered. She might took it a good response and started nibbling my neck and pressing her body up against me. But in reality, it was a shivered of disgust. I closed my eyes and stopped my breathing as well to avoid inhaling her toxic perfume. I stayed there still, trying to control myself for not snapping at her.

The sensation was repulsive. It was different when I touch Angelo and feeling Angelo's touch. It wasn't like Angelo at all. Angelo's touch was soothing and warm while Chloe's was greedy and sexual.

Chloe then went to grab my groin. The sudden act made me regained enough sense to stop whatever she was planning to do. I grabbed her hand harshly and she whined. "You're hurting me." She muttered.

I swatted her arms away and U scurried away to my closet to get dressed. But before getting in, I gazed at her. "Get out of here." I deadpanned, giving her a dead look.

She grabbed her clothes on the carpet floor and dressed up. I watched her dressed up. Her seductive aura disappeared and was replaced by a scowl as she stormed out of my room.

I heaved a sigh of relief and proceeded to get dress myself.

The following days were awkward between me and Chloe. I tried to avoid her as much as I can. I barely talk to her and will just respond a word or two whenever she started a conversation. It went on for a couple of days until my mum noticed something.

As soon as I got home from uni around 6 o'clock in the evening, mum pulled in to the room where we can talk privately.

"I miss you too mum" I chided. She suppressed a smile before I continued. "And I miss my son too."

"He is already asleep. With Chloe." She answered sounded annoyed. "Don't you noticed it son?"

I looked at her confused. "Notice what?" I asked.

"Chloe has been taking Jared out every day to who knows where. And when they come back home, the kid is too tired to even have a dinner or have a wash. Chloe said that the boy is full anyways." My mother explained.

"What are you trying to say, mum?"

"I have a feeling that Chloe is up to something deviant and she's taking Jared in it. I haven't even had a chance to play with my grandson for a week now. The kid is always dead tired to even share his story for the day like he always do." My mum frowned, obviously concerned.

I was quiet for a while thinking about some reasons why Chloe is always out with Jared. Perhaps, Chloe was really trying her best to enjoy her son after not being with him for 4 years. However, it concerns me that Chloe never asked me for money at all. I know that she just got out from prison, which means she doesn't have any assets or anything for money. 'How does she manage to go out every day without having a money at all? Or if she has money, where did she get it?' I thought.

I was brought back to my senses when my mum called my name out. "Are you listening to me, son? Something is not right here. I can feel it. We need to protect Jared as soon as possible."

I put my arms around my mum. "Don't worry mum. I'll talk to Chloe tomorrow morning. I know you miss playing with Jared. I'll make sure that you can spend the day with him tomorrow." I smiled to comfort her.

The next day, I tried confronting Chloe but she said she's not feeling well. She told me that she's going to doctor for a check-up. I offered her a ride but she refused it and insisted that she would be okay to take a taxi. I didn't bother to stop her though. But before she marched out of the house, I told her that we were planning a meeting for Jared's party at No Limits later the evening. She said that she'll be coming to help us planned.

My mum was pleased that Jared got to stay at home and spend time with her. They baked a cake and cookies and watched a non-stop episodes of Spongebob.

Meanwhile, Alex, Dianne and I met up at the pub to plan Jared and Angelo's birthday. Veronica was on Skype as well, although she was trying her best not to recognize me in the room.

"So, where is the immaculate mother of Jared? She should be helping us with this stuff." Veronica huffed.

"She was not feeling well earlier, so she went to the doctor for a check-up." I replied to which I earned a gasped from the woman on Skype. "No Veronica. She is not pregnant. We don't sleep together and I would never sleep with her." I sighed. "She said she was having a migraine or something."

Veronica suppressed a smile before going back to ignoring me. "That seems a lot of trouble. I say we just put her down."

Dianne quickly agreed to the idea and they both laughed manically. Alex threw me a concerned and scared look. We are friends with crazy people.

After a moment of sharing some ideas, Chloe came. I called her out to our spot and went to grab a chair.

"Hey guys! How's it goin'?" she greeted everyone while taking a seat next to me.

Dianne raised her eyebrow. "Bundle up people. It just got partly awkward with a hundred percent chance of annoying."

Alex looked at the Dianne and whispered something to her. Dianne seemed to loosen up and ignored Chloe.

Dianne and Veronica appeared like opposing  Chloe's ideas, to the point that they almost had a cat fight. I don't how would Veronica fight Chloe on Skype though. The planning became an exchange of insults between the girls. Alex and I tried to calm and distract them by diverting the topic to the birthday planning.

An hour of planning passed, which was more like insulting each other, the light suddenly went off. It was just the laptop screen that illuminates a small light in the pub.

"What happened there, Dianne?" Veronica asked.

"The light suddenly went off. Seemed like it was a black out. We have a generator though. Just gonna have to power it up." Diane answered.

"Oh well, on the bright side, Chloe looked much better in darkness." Veronica scoffed.

I heard Chloe muttered a curse at Veronica.

"Let's go get the generator turned on." I said, trying to distract the growing tension of people on my table.

I stood up from my seat and was about to go on to the boiler room where the generator was when Alex grabbed my hands. "Wait." He said in a serious tone. " In a horror movie, the first person to leave the room always gets killed."

Dianne gasped and grabbed Alex hand and mine. "Yes, Alex is right. After you Chloe."

Veronica roared into a laughing fits on the screen followed by Dianne. The light went on as we saw Max coming out of the boiler room.

Dianne and Veronica settled down after a while. I cocked my head on Chloe's direction just to see her fuming in anger. She harshly stood up from her seat and grabbed her bag. "Obviously, I am not welcome here." She muttered, spitting venom with each word. She then looked at me. "I'm going home now. Just tell me later what you bitches have planned." She turned on her heels and walked away.

I looked at Veronica and Dianne and gave them a death looked. "Seriously guys, what did she do to you?" I asked the two girls whose playing the innocent act.

"Nothing." Dianne answered rolling her eyes. "We were just teasing her."

"Look, we should give her a chance to know her good side." I tried to explain.

"Come on Daniel. I'm good at reading people. That woman has many sides and none of them are good. She is a disaster. Trust me." Veronica chided. "Oh by the way, I'm still not talking to you."

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. It appears that I have been doing this a lot lately. Veronica and Dianne was giving me a migraine. Remind me why I am friends with them again?

The meeting ended up with the perfect plan for Jared and Angelo. Everybody has got their roles for the birthdays and everyone were really excited to make it happen. We planned to celebrate Jared's birthday in the morning till afternoon. Weplanned to invite the kids in the neighborhood. We will setup a trampoline and a bouncy castle. There will be a game and a magic show as well as a bubble show. Jared will have a massive cake and 5 candles to blow. Later the night, it would be Angelo's celebration party. All the leftovers from Jared's party will belong to the adult party, even the trampoline and the bouncy castle. It was really exciting.

I got home at around 9 o'clock in the evening. As I entered the door quietly, I saw Chloe sitting on the couch whispering to someone over the phone. "Yes. I'll bring the kid tomorrow." She paused to listen to the person on the other line before continuing. "Daniel's mother has started to suspect and were watching my every move. I had to at least get her trust back by leaving the kid to her today. But it's just today. I'll bring Jared again tomorrow." She said before she hangs up.

I quickly trotted my way back to the door to trick her that I just came in. I wanted to confront her right away but I decided to leave it until morning. So it seems that Veronica's feeling and my mum's as well were correct. Chloe was indeed up to something. And she's bringing Jared with her.

The very next day, Chloe dressed Jared early in the morning. They were also in hurry as she was literally dragging a sobbing Jared with her.

"Where are you going?" I asked. She was surprised to see me still in my pyjama. What surprised her even more is that I was waiting for them downstairs.

"Daddy!" Jared run out to me my arms and clang to me tightly. "I still want to sleep but mummy said we have to get a coke." Jared said, sobbing on my neck.

I furrowed my eyebrow. "A coke?" I asked Jared.

"I-it's the softdrink."Chloe interrupted. She was smiling awkwardly while looking at Jared like a prey.

"I am not talking to you, woman." I glared at her. "Jared, what coke?" I asked Jared once again.

"Mummy said it's a coke. But it's not in the bottle and it's not black. It is white and it looks like salt." Jared explained.

"Cocaine." I muttered, my heart was beating rapidly every second. I looked at Chloe, who by then glaring at Jared's back like she wanted to grab him. I securely covered Jared in my strong hands. "You are selling drugs and you were taking my son all this time? You are disgusting!" I erupted.

"That stupid child! I told him not to tell anyone about it!" She shrieked and started to grab Jared from me. I pushed her hard and she stumbled on the floor.

"Mum!" I called out. My mother quickly walked down the stairs, wiping the sleep away from her eyes.

My mum gazed at Chloe, who by then getting up from the floor. "What is happening here?" she asked as she started to walk over to my direction.

"Take Jared and go to my room. Call the police. Don't come out until I said so." I told her, my eyes never left Chloe.

She gently took Jared and rushed upstairs after getting the home phone.

"I'll make sure you'll never come out of prison ever again this time!" I spat. I could feel the blood pulsing on my temple. "What you did is child abuse and you'll never get out of it."

I walked towards her. I didn't notice that she was holding a bottle on her bag. As soon as I came close to restraint her, she hit me with a bottle in my head. My surrounding went spinning and there was a painful sensation searing on the left side of my head. I heard something broke on the floor and the disgusting scent followed after. I realized that it was her perfume bottle that she used to hit me.

I tried to get up but my head was spinning. I couldn't get up without falling off the floor again.

"You didn't give me a chance to be a mother. You and your stupid son love that faggot more than me. You are all disgusting!" she said in disgust.

I looked at her just to see that she was gazing upstairs. "Screw you!" I countered. "You don't have a son here!"

"Oh really now? Watch me and I'll show you." She said while walking upstairs to my room. After a while, I heard a door banging upstairs followed by Chloe's screamed. 'Give me my son you stupid bitch!' she said while banging hard on the door of my room. I could hear Jared's cry upstairs and that made me see red.

I wanted to rip the bitch's throat out and punch her face to death. I tried to get up once again, but after a couple of steps, I slammed on the stairs.

"Mum! Don't get out! Block the door!" I screamed, hoping my mum heard me.

Chloe was crazy and it was a terrible idea to give her a second chance. If anything happened to my son and my mum, I would blame myself forever. It was all my fault.

After what seems like forever, I heard the police siren wailing towards our direction. The banging stopped and I heard a footstep rushing down the stairs in panicked.

I saw Chloe running downstairs, her hair was a mess like a lunatic. She looked at me angrily and said, "I'll take away your son from you! I'll kill the stupid faggot and no one of you will be happy. I'll kill your friends too!" she threatened before kicking me on the stomach followed by another kicked on my head. Blood was covering my eyes.

I watched her silhouette disappeared by the door frame as I started to lose consciousness.

After a moment, I heard a man called out. He rushed over to me and ask his partner to call for an ambulance.

"Sir, you're safe now. Ambulance is on the way. Stay awake with me, okay?" the policeman.

"My mum and my son upstairs. Are they alright?" I asked.

My eyes became blurry as I couldn't see anything anymore. I relied on my ears and heard feet rushing upstairs. I felt that I was being lifted up by a couple of hands and then lied down on a stretcher.

"Daddy!" I heard Jared screaming. It was the last thing I heard before losing my consciousness completely.

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