“No. You’re just like Daddy! If you’re sleeping with her, that’s it. You’ll believe everything she tells you,” she accuses.
“Chloe. Think about it. Our parents never loved each other. They got married because Mom got pregnant with us.”
“So what? He did the right thing back then.”
“Chloe, that house was full of pictures of them laughing together, there’s not one piece of photographic evidence of a family in this house! Libby and Dad loved each other, and they had to hide it all those years,” I explain.
“I won’t believe that,” she says, shaking her head.
“Chloe, Libby Radcliffe killed herself because she couldn’t live after he died, she didn’t take all his money and live it up, she gave up everything and she chose to follow him into the afterlife. She didn’t even say goodbye to her daughter, she just couldn’t live without him.”
“Is that what Claire told you?” she sneers.
“She saved my life up there, we were in an avalanche and she dragged me inside. She could have left me out there to die. She asked for nothing in return,” I try to explain.
“Again, so what?” she gripes.
“She missed me, she missed you, and you,” I point to Matteo. His cheeks turn bright red. “Remember how much we loved her, Chloe?” I ask, turning back to face her. “Remember how you used to plan your weddings, how we made pillows forts and how we’d spend all winter anticipating hot summer nights with her? Try and remember, don’t let the hurt and humiliation of that night blur your reality of how close we all were. I get it, Chloe. I get not wanting to believe her and wanting to believe Dad, but he was the one who wronged us. All of us. I am so angry at him, not just for cheating on our mother, but he took my girlfriend away from me. He could have slept with anyone, but he chose the love of my life’s mother. I hated him for that then. I hate him for that now.”
“I’m sorry, Vaughn. I won’t ever forgive that family,” Chloe says, walking to the door. “And I think you’re a fool to think Claire Radcliffe isn’t the same kind of woman as her mother.” Chloe leaves, quietly closing the door behind her.
I turn to Matteo for some kind of help or encouragement, but he just stares at me with sad eyes. “I think I’m with Chloe on this, Vaughn. We don’t know who Claire Radcliffe is today. And I think you should stay far away from her, nothing good is going to come out of any of this.”
