The Single Mom Who Toyed With Married Men Chapter 04

The Single Mom Who Toyed With Married Men Chapter 04

The noise outside kept building. Leo’s voice was going hoarse.

It was loud enough to draw the whole floor out of their apartments.

Mrs. Foster from across the hall came out first. She took one look and rushed to Leo, pulling him into her arms.

“Oh my God! Chloe, Chloe, honey, wake up!”

She patted Chloe’s cheek, then whipped around toward our door. “Hey! Are you people even alive in there? You can hear this child screaming and you won’t open the damn door?”

That was all it took. Doors started opening up and down the hallway.

Within a minute, a crowd had formed outside our door.

Mostly the older busybodies from the building, plus a handful of husbands who’d come running.

They stared at our closed door, and the mood turned ugly fast.

“What is wrong with these people? How heartless can you be?”

“Being rude is one thing, but someone could be dying out here and they won’t even open the door!”

“Mr. Hayes! You gonna hide in there like a coward, or come out and act like a man?”

Someone yelled it out, and then a boot slammed into our door. Twice.

Right on cue, with the whole hallway watching, Chloe “came to.”

She sagged against Mrs. Foster, breathing hard, tears streaking her face.

“Don’t… don’t blame Mr. Hayes. It’s my fault. I’m just not well.”

Her voice was barely a whisper, but her eyes were locked on our door.

“I just… I heard Mr. Hayes’s mother is a doctor, so I thought he’d know first aid. That’s why I sent Leo. But maybe they’re not home.”

Textbook manipulation. Every single word.

She’d explained why she came to our door specifically, handed us a gracious excuse for not answering, and still made herself look like a saint. All in two sentences.

It worked. The crowd went from angry to furious.

“Not home, my ass! I was walking past ten minutes ago and every light in that apartment was on!”

“Break it down! Let’s see if they can look us in the eye!”

A couple of the men were already looking around for something to pry it open.

Nathaniel was standing next to me, his face rigid with anger.

His fists were clenched. “This is insane. If they break that door down, we lose no matter what. I’m going out there to explain.”

“That’s exactly what she wants.” I grabbed his arm and held him back.

Opening that door was the whole point of this setup.

The second we showed our faces, it wouldn’t matter what we said. A crowd that angry doesn’t listen. They just condemn.

The banging on the door got louder. The frame was starting to groan.

Leo’s crying, the shouting, the pounding. It all pressed in on us from every direction.

“I’m calling the cops.” Nathaniel pulled out his phone, his voice flat and hard.

“No need.” I was watching the doorbell camera feed on my phone. Even through the grainy image, I could see it: the faintest trace of a smirk on Chloe’s pale face. I almost laughed.

I opened my messages, pulled up Mr. Davis’s thread, and sent everything: the security footage and every document I’d spent all of yesterday digging up.

“Let them.” I pulled Nathaniel back to the couch and poured two glasses of water as if our front door wasn’t about to splinter.

“Three minutes. That’s all we need. The real show is about to start.”