Chương 6
Adrian did not answer.
“Adrian.”
“Someone inside Ethan’s company.”
“Who?”
“I’m trying to find out.”
“You’re investigating my husband.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked surprised by the question.
“I thought we discussed this.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“You said your sister.”
His expression changed.
“She had no one protecting her.”
The words came quietly.
I looked at him.
“And you think I don’t?”
“I think you have spent a long time pretending you do.”
That hurt because it was too close.
I looked down at the blanket.
The room was silent except for the machines beside me.
When my mother was alive, she used to say I apologized before people even accused me.
She said it was my way of keeping the peace.
I hated that she had been right.
“I’m not helpless,” I said.
“I know.”
“Then stop acting like I am.”
“I’m not.”
“It feels like it.”
Adrian nodded slowly.
“That’s fair.”
I looked at him.
“You always do that.”
“Do what?”
“Accept every criticism.”
A small breath escaped him.
“Not every criticism.”
“Which ones?”
“The accurate ones.”
I almost laughed.
“That sounds exhausting.”
“It is.”
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then a stronger contraction started.
The change was immediate.
The conversation disappeared.
Fear returned.
I grabbed the side rail.
Adrian stood.
“Should I call someone?”
“No.”
The word came out quickly.
Then I softened.
“Call the nurse.”
He did.
Not dramatically.
Not like someone trying to take control.
Just a man who knew when he was needed and when he was not.
The nurse arrived with the doctor shortly after.
The room filled with movement again.
Questions.
Monitors.
Instructions.
I focused on breathing.
The doctor explained that contractions could happen even after medication and that they needed to watch carefully.
No promises.
No false comfort.
Just reality.
When the doctor left, I noticed Adrian had moved to the corner of the room.
Away from everyone.
Away from me.
Giving space.
That small decision stayed with me.
Ethan always entered a room like it belonged to him.
Adrian left room for other people to exist.
Hours passed.
The contractions slowed again.
I slept briefly.
When I woke, the afternoon light had replaced the storm clouds outside.
My phone was missing from the table.
I reached for it and found it beside a small stack of papers.
Not hospital papers.
Documents.
I looked at Adrian.
“You put these here.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because your attorney emailed them to me.”
I stared at him.
“My attorney?”
“You had one listed in your marriage agreement.”
“I don’t have an attorney.”
“You do now.”
I felt irritation rise.
“I didn’t ask you to do that.”
“No.”
His expression remained calm.
“I know.”
“Then why?”
“Because Ethan’s attorney was in that conference room when you signed.”
“So?”
“So the person protecting your interests should not have been the person who worked for the person removing you from your home.”
I looked at the papers.
The top page had a name I recognized.
A woman named Natalie Brooks.
I remembered seeing her once at a dinner years ago.
She had asked me questions about the marriage agreement.
Ethan had interrupted and changed the subject.
At the time, I thought he was being helpful.
Now I wondered why he had been so quick.
“I don’t understand any of this,” I whispered.
Adrian sat down.
“You don’t have to understand everything today.”
“I hate that everyone keeps saying that.”
“Why?”
“Because it means something bad happened.”
He did not argue.
That made it worse.
My eyes moved over the first page.
There were sections highlighted.
Words I had never paid attention to.
Assets.
Ownership.
Transfer rights.
My heartbeat increased.
“What did Ethan do?”
Adrian looked at me.
“I think he discovered there was something in the agreement that could prevent him from doing what he wanted.”
“What?”
“I don’t know yet.”
I closed my eyes.
Another unknown.
Another piece of my life controlled by someone else.
Then Adrian said something that made me open my eyes.
“But Claire.”
His voice was careful.
“You need to know this.”
“What?”
“The house may never have belonged to Ethan alone.”
I stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
He looked at the papers.
Then back at me.
“It means the reason he needed you gone in twenty-four hours may not have been because he was leaving you.”
A pause.
“It may have been because he was afraid you would find out you had a claim to something he desperately wanted to keep.”
The words stayed between us.
A claim.
A house.
A reason Ethan had rushed me out before I could ask questions.
I looked at the papers again, but the letters seemed to move.
Nothing about my life had ever felt like a legal document until now.
Marriage.
Money.
Property.
Everything I thought belonged to two people had apparently been decided by strangers wearing expensive suits.
“I need to know what’s real,” I said.
Adrian nodded.
“That’s the right question.”
“Not what happened?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because people can tell different versions of what happened.”
He glanced at the papers.
“Documents are harder to convince.”
I looked at him.
“You sound like you’ve learned that the hard way.”
His expression shifted.
A fraction.
Almost invisible.
“I have.”
I wanted to ask.
Something stopped me.
Maybe it was the way he looked away.
Maybe it was the fact that everyone had a story they protected, and I was tired of demanding pieces of people before they were ready to give them.
The door opened again.
This time it was a woman wearing a navy suit carrying a leather folder.
She stopped when she saw Adrian.
“Of course you’re here.”
Adrian stood.
“Hello, Natalie.”
The woman looked at me.
“I’m sorry we’re meeting under these circumstances.”
I recognized her face from years ago.
Natalie Brooks.
The attorney from the dinner.
The one Ethan had dismissed.
“You knew about this?” I asked.
May you like
Her eyes moved between Adrian and me.
“I knew something was wrong.”
