Chapter 4
The air in the office felt thick. Ethan stood between me and the door, his expression unreadable. For the first time since I met him, I didn’t recognize the man in front of me.
“You knew Vanessa was going to hurt me,” I said, my voice shaking despite my effort to stay calm. “You knew, and you still helped her hide money.”
Ethan sighed like I was being difficult.
“I told her to leave you alone,” he said. “But you just had to keep pushing. You couldn’t just stay quiet like before. You had to call the police. You had to make everything public.”
I took a small step back, but my back hit the desk.
“What do you want from me, Ethan?” I asked.
He looked at me for a long moment, then spoke with frightening honesty.
“I want you to sign the papers my mother prepared. The ones that give me full control over Noah’s trust and our assets. Once that’s done, you can leave. You can take whatever you want from the house. But Noah stays with me.”
My blood ran cold.
“You’re not taking my son.”
Ethan’s face hardened.
“You don’t have a choice, Claire. If you fight me on this, I’ll make sure the court sees you as unstable. A woman who falsely accused her own sister. A woman who ran away with her child in the middle of the night. I have records. I have witnesses. And I have money.”
He took another step closer.
“Sign the papers tomorrow. Or I’ll make sure you never see Noah again.”
I felt something snap inside me.
All the fear, all the pain, all the lies — it all turned into something sharp and clear.
I looked him straight in the eyes and said, “You’re never getting near my son again.”
Before he could react, I grabbed the heavy glass paperweight from his desk and threw it at the window behind him. The glass shattered loudly. Ethan instinctively turned around, and in that split second, I ran past him.
I sprinted down the hallway toward Noah’s room. My hands were shaking so badly I could barely open the door. I grabbed my son from his crib, wrapped him in a blanket, and held him tightly against my chest.
Ethan’s footsteps were already coming down the hall.
“Claire!” he shouted. “Don’t do this!”
I didn’t stop. I ran down the stairs, grabbed my car keys from the table by the door, and rushed outside. The cold night air hit my face as I strapped Noah into his car seat with trembling hands.
Just as I was about to get into the driver’s seat, Ethan appeared at the front door.
“Claire, stop!” he yelled. “If you leave with him, I’ll report you for kidnapping!”
I looked at him one last time.
Then I got into the car, locked the doors, and drove away as fast as I could.
In the rearview mirror, I saw Ethan standing in the driveway, phone already in his hand.
I didn’t know where I was going. I just knew I couldn’t stay.
My phone started ringing. It was Ethan. I declined the call.
A few seconds later, a text message appeared on the screen.
You just made the biggest mistake of your life. I’m going to take everything from you — starting with Noah.
I looked at my son in the backseat. He was still sleeping peacefully, unaware of how much danger we were in.
Tears blurred my vision as I drove into the night.
I had nowhere to go.
But I knew one thing for certain:
This wasn’t over.
May you like
Not even close.
To be continued...
