“Chloe must be horrified,” I say, slumping into a barstool at the kitchen counter. I feel my pulse in my hand where I cut it. “You said it’s all over social media now?” I ask Elodie, who nods.

“Wait!” Charlie shouts. “The last sentence says: May someone else put this strap-on to good use, so you can get screwed just like Khloe screwed me over.”

I read over the same words. “Bastard was with her for three years and still doesn’t know how to spell her name right? Khloe with a K is a Kardashian,” I grumble.

“The auction is riddled with typos,” Charlie explains with a shrug.

“Guy must have been drunk,” I muse. Poor Chloe. The strap-on issue is intriguing. I cringe.

“Daddy, how can you like Coldplay and know who the Kardashians are? You’re a pop culture contradiction.”

“I’m young enough to pay attention but old enough not to care, honey.”

“What’s the name of the guy? The asshole ex?” Charlie asks, eyes gleaming.

“Joe.”

“Joe what? You know his last name?”

“Joe Blow.”

Even Charlie rolls his eyes.

“Why?” My voice goes low. Charlie is scheming. This can lead to no good.

“Because I have an idea.”

“All of your ideas suck, Charlie.”

“Only the ones involving other people’s money.”

Fair enough. “I can call Anterdec and find out from security.”

“You’re going to rescue Chloe again, aren’t you, Daddy?” Elodie is breathless with the excitement of a young woman who sees potential in every situation but has not yet experienced the full consequences that potential can bring.

“Again?” Charlie’s eyebrow goes up.

“Daddy tackled him in the hallway at work when Joe came after Chloe! He was like a Navy SEAL!”

“A Navy SEAL, huh?” Charlie can’t help but laugh. “They teach you that at RISD?”

“Yes. I took a course on ‘Evasive Maneuvers When Choosing Fabrics for Branding.’ It was useful when I finally got to business school at Harvard.”

“What’s your idea?”

“Find the guy. Contact his wife. Blow the lid on the affair.”

“How’d you know it was an affair?”

Charlie shrugs. “No guy that desperate isn’t married.”

Good point. “And then what? I don’t want this to come back and bite Chloe.”

Charlie taps on his screen and grins. “I don’t think you have to worry. I just Googled Khloe Brown, the way he spelled it—look.”

The top news story shouted in all caps:

PORN STAR KHLOE BROWN PEGGED AS ONLINE AUCTION MYSTERY WOMAN

“Chloe spells her first name with a C and there’s an E at the end of Browne,” I say slowly.

“He misspelled it. On purpose?” Charlie asks.

“Definitely drunk.”

“Gotcha. Good thing. Looks like Perkie Workie’s getting a nice PR boost.”

“Perkie—what?”

“That’s Khloe Brown’s character. You know...in her series.”

“Series?”

“Her porn series. She’s this milkmaid who—“”

“Got it. Done. No need to elaborate.”

“I only know this because at my last job, our developer team had just worked on an integrated USB device system for the production company for her series, and—”

I ignore him, reaching for my laptop bag, logging in.

“What are you doing?”

“I have an idea.” I find the site, Never Liked It Anyway, and search for the strap-on.

“Whoa. Five hundred eighteen bucks for this thing. Eleven hundred for the entire lot,” I say, rubbing my hand on my chin, my stubble irritating the cut on my palm.

“Deadpool made pegging cool,” Elodie elaborates. “Prices are higher for—”

“Would you stop saying that?” I grouse.

“What? Deadpool?”

“No.”

She smirks at Charlie, who stifles a laugh.

I put in a bid.

“You’re going to buy Chloe’s strap-on?” Charlie asks, agog.

That’s right. I can be carefree. Just watch me.

Carefree with my Visa, that is.

“Just curious how this works,” I say with a meaningful throat clearing.

“You’re hardcore, Daddy.”

“I don’t think this is a particularly strong example of anything, my dear.”

“You’re saving Chloe.”

I don’t know what I’m doing, frankly, but I won’t admit that to my kid. I just know that shutting down Joe’s antics is priority number one. The longer this stays online, the sooner it’ll get back to Chloe, and possibly hurt her personally or professionally.

Five minutes after a call with Anterdec security, I have Joe’s last name.

And Charlie gets to work.

Chapter 11

Chloe

Your average Sunday. Read the papers, drink coffee, do laundry, look at Facebook. Wish Nick would call. Go for walk, take shower, wish Nick would call. Scoop catbox, wish Nick would…

You get the idea.

At six p.m., I decide on an early dinner for one. I am putting the chicken breast in the baking dish, closely supervised by Minky, when the back door bursts open and there’s Henry, with Jemma just behind him.

“Hey!” I greet them. “There’s only one chicken breast but we can make chicken chili. I have tomatoes and...”

“Chloe, what the hell? Why aren’t you answering your phone?” Henry interrupts.

“It hasn’t rung..?”

Now that I think of it, it hasn’t rung all day. Which is odd.

“The social worker called,” Jemma says urgently. “Yvonne called us because she couldn’t reach you, and we’re your emergency contacts. Li had the baby. A baby girl, just like in the ultrasound.”

There is silence. I just look at them.

“Chloe, honey?” Jem puts her hand on my arm. “There’s more. She had the baby, and then she disappeared. She checked herself out of the hospital. No one knows where she is.”

I’m still staring. This is not in the birth plan.