Chapter 275

• CLOE POV
• Soren didn’t linger on it. “Anyway, this is just background. The real heart of the matter, this baby thing, that’s been brewing for years. Max told me there was this park about twenty minutes’ walk from the hostel, a better park than the rundown piece of shit one by theirs. He used to take himself off there, and sit and watch. There were families, he said, nice families. Proper mums and dads with happy kids, just having a good time. He used to sit outside the fence and watch them, and pray that he’d have a family like that of his own one day. People to love.” He sighed. “Kids to love.” He picked up a bit of woodchip, turned it in his fingers. “When your dad gave him a shot he threw himself into work, to get ready for the future, to make something of himself. That’s what he says. Didn’t meet Cynthia until his late twenties, but thought she was the one. She claimed she felt the same. Who wouldn’t with a guy like Max? He’s gorgeous, successful, smart…” His voice trailed off. “But the woman was a wild thing, believe me. Couldn’t imagine her doing the school run, to be honest, couldn’t imagine her with a couple of kids, not in a million years. But he could.”
• “She was the woman with him when you met?”