Chapter 6 - One Night Away

Claire packed anyway.

Not because she wanted to abandon Ethan.

Because she needed space to think without his face in front of her.

“I’m taking Noah to my sister’s,” she said.

Ethan nodded, though every part of him wanted to argue.

“I’ll come too.”

“No.”

“Claire, a black SUV just circled our house.”

“And whose choices brought it here?”

He had no defense.

She softened a little. “Lock the doors. Call Mara. Do not call Ryan unless she tells you to. And please, for once, don’t decide alone what’s best for everybody.”

Noah stood beside the packed diaper bag holding the remote.

Ethan crouched. “Buddy, that stays here.”

Noah hugged it to his chest.

Claire raised an eyebrow. “Apparently he has custody.”

Ethan smiled despite himself.

He kissed Noah’s hair.

Then Claire carried their son to the car.

The house felt enormous after they left.

Ethan sat on the couch, stared at the silent television, and finally called Mara.

She answered on the first ring.

“Good. You’re alone?”

“Yes.”

“Find the agreement you signed.”

He pulled it from his desk.

“Page six,” she said. “Read the guarantor section.”

Ethan read it once.

Then again.

His mouth went dry.

Ryan had told him he was signing as an investor.

The language made Ethan a personal guarantor for obligations connected to Northline.

“This can’t be enforceable,” Ethan said.

“Maybe not. But it can still create a very expensive fight.”

A knock sounded at the back door.

Ethan froze.

Nobody used the back door.

“Mara.”

“I heard it.”

Another knock.

Then a man’s voice through the glass.

“Ethan Parker? We just want to talk.”

Ethan stepped back.

His phone buzzed with a text from Claire.

WE MADE IT TO LENA’S.

A second text arrived from an unknown number.

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NICE FAMILY. DON’T MAKE THIS HARD.

Attached was a photograph of Claire carrying Noah into her sister’s house.\n\nEthan turned off every light except the lamp beside the couch. The television screen reflected his own shape back at him: one man sitting in a room built for three. He could still see the shallow dent where Claire usually sat to fold clothes and the toy truck Noah had abandoned beneath the coffee table. The quiet did not feel peaceful. It felt earned.