Claimed By My Billionaire Ex

Chapter 9

OLIVE

Ipulled my sweater tighter around me and slid my hands into my pockets. My boots crushed orange leaves that littered the neighborhood on the walk to Claire's school. It was barely September and fall had arrived early, but the normal pleasures I associated with the change in season evaded me.

As we approached the street across from her school, Claire tugged at my hand.

"Mommy, can we get ice cream after school?"

Had that black sedan been parked on the corner the day before or was I imagining that? Even if it had been there, who was to say it was suspicious? Half the kids at Claire's school arrived in non-descript vehicles driven by private valets.

Plus, the school was tucked between a block of locally-owned shops. The wrath of the wigs had petitioned the city to build the unique shops so that the school children could visit them on field trips and learn about the value of self-employment.

Maybe the owner of the car just wanted to buy some candles made out of honey or drink smoothies made out of seagrass.

Or maybe whoever was sitting behind those severely tinted windows was following me, watching my every move..

"Mommy?" Claire squeezed my hand.

"Yeah, honey, we can get ice cream."

Ice cream. I'd been giving her ice cream every day since finding the burglars in Quinn's apartment. I was pretty certain she hadn't seen anything to traumatize her, but in truth, it was I who had been craving ice cream. It made things feel just a little better.

"Mommy?"

"What, Claire?" I snapped louder than I intended.

"Olive, I think she's trying to tell you the light has changed."

My stomach churned at Rachel Carlyle'shigh-pitched voice.

Claire smiled up at me and shrugged. The light had changed, and parents and their children were crossing. Rachel gave me a smug smile as she passed me. She was dressed in a coat made of some animal fur and UGG boots, a spiced peppermint latte in her hands.

The sight of her made me want to vomit.

Not wanting Ms. Stevens to come chide me for the payment I still owed for Claire's scholarship, I stopped half a block from the main gate and wrapped her in a tight hug. "Have a good day, okay?"

"And then we can get ice cream?"

I ruffled her hair. "And then we can get ice cream."

To my dismay, the wrath of the wigs were standing closer to me today than the gate. As Claire skipped off, Rachel broke from the group, her boots tapping as she approached me. I had every intention of spinning around and bolting back across the street when my phone vibrated.

The news story that popped up on my home screen made everything around me disappear.

Local bank teller Quinn Morris declared missing.

I didn't know Quinn's last name...hell, I didn't even know he was a bank teller. But the photo beneath the caption was undeniably his.

Less than a week after assigning me the job to hack into the mayor's computer, his apartment had been ransacked, and now he was missing. If whoever was behind this discovered my involvement, what would happen to me?

My heart clenched as I scanned the street around me. Where did the black sedan go? Fuck. What if someone was watching me and now they knew I had a daughter?