Chapter 3
I sat on the edge of the bed for a long time after the call with Detective Ruiz ended. My hands were cold, but my mind was racing.
Ethan had been helping Vanessa.
The same man who held my hand in the hospital, who cried when Noah was born, who told me he would always protect us — might have been working with the woman who pushed me down the stairs.
I didn’t want to believe it. But Ruiz wasn’t the type to make accusations without evidence.
That night, I tried to act normal. I cooked dinner, smiled when Ethan came home, and let him hold Noah while I set the table. But every time he looked at me, I felt like he could see straight through the mask I was wearing.
After dinner, Ethan went to take a shower. The moment I heard the water running, I moved.
I went into his home office and opened his laptop. He never set a password — he always said he had nothing to hide. I used to believe that.
My hands were shaking as I went through his emails. Most of them were normal work messages. Then I opened a folder labeled “Client Files – 2024.” Inside were several emails between Ethan and Vanessa.
I clicked on one.
The subject line read: “The transfer needs to be done before the divorce hearing.”
My stomach dropped as I read through the chain. Ethan had helped Vanessa move money into an account under a fake name. He had even drafted some of the documents for her. In one of the emails, Vanessa wrote:
“Once this is done, she won’t have anything left to hold over me. Claire thinks she’s so smart. She has no idea.”
I felt sick.
I kept scrolling. There were more messages — some from months ago, even before I got pregnant. Ethan had known about Vanessa’s threats. He had known she was dangerous. And he never told me.
A new email caught my eye. It was from last week, after I was pushed.
Vanessa: “She called the police. What do we do now?”
Ethan’s reply: “Let me handle Claire. She trusts me. I’ll make sure she doesn’t push this too far.”
I covered my mouth with my hand as tears filled my eyes. Not from sadness — but from pure, cold anger.
He knew.
He knew what Vanessa did to me, and he still tried to protect her.
I was so focused on the screen that I didn’t hear the water stop. I didn’t hear the bathroom door open.
I only realized Ethan was behind me when his voice came from the doorway.
“Find anything interesting?”
I froze.
Slowly, I turned around. Ethan stood there in a T-shirt and sweatpants, his hair still damp. His expression was calm, but his eyes were sharp. He was looking at the laptop screen.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then he stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.
“Claire,” he said quietly, “you shouldn’t have done that.”
I stood up, my heart pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears.
“You knew,” I whispered. “You knew what she did to me… and you still helped her.”
Ethan didn’t deny it. He just looked at me with an expression I had never seen on his face before — cold, calculating, almost disappointed.
“I was trying to protect this family,” he said. “You’re the one who had to make everything so difficult.”
I took a step back.
“Who are you?” I asked.
Ethan smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.
“I’m the same man you married,” he said. “The only difference is that now you know too much.”
He took another step closer.
May you like
“And that’s a problem.”
To be continued...
