Page 35 of Penalty Kill

Chloe was waiting for us. She’d been doing that a lot lately. She gave updates to some of us, pointers to the rookies, and then she waved me down.

I hated that she always made me wait until the end. The anticipation never helped with the blow that was sure to come.

“Hey, Dad.” She waited for me to sit next to her, and I knew it was bad today.

“What’s going on?”

“The wicked witch has been hard at work.” She paused and met my eyes. “Sorry, I shouldn’t call her that. She’s still the boys’ mom.”

I sighed. “Trust me, I call her a lot worse in my mind.”

She smiled, but it didn’t last long. “She took the opportunity just like we knew she would. More and more ‘sources close to the couple’ are backing up her story about you and Sydney. They’re making you out to be an adulterer and terrible father.”

Per my request, Chloe hadn’t gotten involved. Despite her desperation to get back at Olivia for what she was doing. It was like dangling a steak in front of a rabid wolf. She wanted to tear her limb from limb. She didn’t tolerate people hurting her family, and the boys and I were a part of that. I knew the moment I gave her the go ahead, she would have emails sent and calls made.

I wasn’t there yet. I didn’t want to add fuel to the inferno. I didn’t want to give the reporters anything. One word or reaction would last them days. They could write article after article of garbage analyzing that one action.

I didn’t want to give them anything.

“What is it going to take for this to just go away?” I asked, mostly to myself.

“She’s a leech. She’s going to milk this attention for all it’s worth. Right now, she’s getting more sympathy than she ever did through the divorce. Now that she’s not the bad guy, she’s in heaven. She can pretend to be the heartbroken woman scorned. She’s able to spin her reasoning for not wanting custody of the boys. She’s blaming you for all her emotional trauma. How she had to get far away and work on herself so she could live her best life and eventually be a better mother.”

I scoffed. “Yeah, that’s what she’s doing.”

“I know the truth. You do. The team does. I know you don’t care, but at some point this is all going to start hurting you. You want it to disappear, but I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon. She’s already drug it out another week. You can’t risk losing sponsorship and endorsements over this. Don’t let her do that to you. She’s taken enough.”

She was right. The bad press hadn’t affected me too much yet. The companies I worked with knew me well enough to let it slide. But if Olivia kept this up, kept spinning stories, I might not walk out of this without losing something.

I slumped down, resting my elbows on my knees. “So? What do you suggest?”

“We need to get aggressive. Your attorney needs to issue a threat for defamation. Your agent needs to contact your current contracts and make sure they know this is all a bunch of garbage.” She paused. “I also think you need to issue your own statement, explaining that Sydney is the boys’ nanny, you’ve only known her for a few weeks, and that there is nothing romantic going on between you.”

I flinched, and of course she caught it.

“Unless there is something there?” Just like that, she switched from vicious business woman to overinvolved friend.

“There isn’t something not there. I don’t know.” I couldn’t even figure out flirting. How was I supposed to know if she had more feelings for me than just professional or friendship?

“Then we’ll just skip that part.” She made the decision for me.

“It won’t make things worse?”

She shook her head. “There’s no way of knowing for sure until we try.”

I didn’t see any other options. We had to end this before it got out of control.

“Okay. I’ll do it.”

“Perfect. I’ll make the calls.” She stood and walked away while I stared at the ice.

12

Sydney

Brandon was acting strange. He came home from practice and immediately went to his room to pack. The boys didn’t seem to notice anything off, but I could see it in his face. What happened today? I wanted to find him and ask, but that wasn’t my responsibility. I was here for the boys.

“Do you guys want to make your Dad a card? We’ll tell him to read it on the plane.” I hoped that would cheer him up and take him out of whatever funk he was in.