Page 58 of Shattered Love

I wonder how Sharon is doing. She’s strong, like my girl. She's where Avery got it from. But she loved that man something stupid.

My poor baby girl. The only man she knows as a father is dead. Is her heart broken? Is her face tear-streaked from pain? The thought of my baby girl hurting in any way makes my chest tighten. I would burn down the world to stop her from feeling any pain.

A new wave of darkness washes over me at the thought of my baby girl, my Juliet, and the fact I will never hear her call me Daddy, all our shattered plans.

I doubt she would even know me. I don't know how much Sharon and Derek told Juliet about me, if anything at all. I could live with that pain because I know they tell her about her mother, my girl. They tell her how much she loved, how rare she was, and what it was like to be loved by someone like Avery.

There is a knock on my door.

“Come in.”

Izzy, my secretary, walks in. “Good morning.” Her voice is soft.

It doesn’t matter how much of an asshole I am to her or how cold my tone is, she still smiles at me.

She walks to my desk, placing the files on my desk. I’m not one for talking on the best days, so Izzy doesn't take any offense. “You need to sign these.”

I nod, the only confirmation that I heard.

Izzy stands there, which isn't like her. She normally just walks away, but now she moves from foot to foot.

I lift my eyes slightly to hers.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Stone. The officer who was appointed to you has pulled out.” She looks nervous.

“If there isn't anything else…”

Her eyes widen slightly before she hurries out of the office.

I pull the note out of my pocket. Unraveling it, I take my first look at the name—Braxton Jameson.

I write his name in the database. It takes seconds for my screen to fill with the information. I pale as I read the screen and I know I've just gone deeper into the tangled web of deceit.

None of it makes sense. I know he couldn't have been involved. I fucking know this for fact. He was just a kid at the time.

It takes everything in me to not fucking bust Benny’s kneecaps open and take a few more of his fingers for feeding me this shit information. I have hit so many fucking dead ends over the years. Every fucking one is another blade cutting my scars, just another way I let my beautiful down.

But something in my fucking gut is telling me that this lead isn't a dead end. It’s the key to Pandora’s box and I am about to fucking open it.

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