Chapter 12 - The Choice Claire Makes
The police took Ryan for formal questioning.
Ethan expected Claire to leave with Noah again.
Instead she sat beside him in the hotel breakfast room at four in the morning while Noah slept in a stroller between them.
For ten minutes, neither spoke.
Finally Ethan said, “You should hate me.”
Claire looked at him. “That would be easier.”
He nodded.
“I’m not asking you to forgive me.”
“Good.”
“I’m asking you to let me fix what I can.”
She rubbed her eyes. “You keep using that word. Fix.”
“What’s wrong with it?”
“You think fixing means making the consequences disappear. Sometimes fixing means standing there while the consequences happen and not running.”
Ethan looked down.
“I’m listening.”
“I was already thinking about leaving before tonight.”
He felt the air leave his body.
Claire continued before he could speak.
“Not because you’re cruel. Not because you don’t love us. Because I have felt alone in this house for a year.”
“A year?”
“You come home exhausted. You disappear into your phone. You say ‘in a minute’ to Noah so often he learned to stop asking.”
Ethan thought of the remote hitting the table.
Noah’s tiny hand.
No.
Mommy.
Claire’s eyes watered. “Our two-year-old had to tell you to help me.”
That hurt worse than the money.
“I saw it,” Ethan whispered.
“No. You saw a cute moment. I saw a warning.”
He nodded slowly.
Then Claire reached across the table and placed the brass key Ryan had given them in Ethan’s palm.
“I’m not going to Dane Auto Storage with you.”
“Good.”
“But I’m not stopping you either.”
Ethan closed his fingers around the key.
Claire leaned closer.
“If you go, you go with the police. With Mara. With everyone knowing exactly where you are. No secrets. No solo rescue mission.”
“I promise.”
She held his gaze.
“Your promises are on probation.”
Ethan almost smiled.
May you like
Then Mara entered the room holding her phone.
“Bad news,” she said. “Victor’s office is being emptied right now.”\n\nEthan stared at Claire's list of boundaries as she spoke. A year earlier he might have called it cold. Now he understood that boundaries were what people built after promises had failed. The list was not punishment. It was architecture. If their marriage was going to stand, feelings alone were no longer enough to hold the roof up.
