Chương 4
I stood in the kitchen holding a coffee I had forgotten to drink and looked at the blue stars taped unevenly across the paper.
“Why do you want to take it?” I asked.
She shrugged.
“Because I made it.”
That answer stayed with me.
Children did not attach meaning to betrayal the way adults did.
To her, the bag was not evidence of a broken marriage.
It was a thing she created for someone she loved.
I nodded.
“Okay.”
She smiled slightly.
Then she grabbed her backpack and ran upstairs to find her shoes.
I watched her disappear and wondered how many more times I would have to separate her memories from Ethan’s mistakes.
After dropping her at school, I drove back home and sat in my car for almost ten minutes.
The engine was off.
The radio was silent.
I had no reason to stay there.
I simply could not make myself walk inside.
The house felt different without Lily.
Not empty.
Just too quiet.
My phone rang.
Daniel.
I answered immediately.
“Tell me you found something.”
“I found something.”
His voice was careful.
I hated careful voices.
“What?”
“Ethan moved money before the freeze.”
My grip tightened around the steering wheel.
“How much?”
“Not personal accounts.”
“That is not what I asked.”
A pause.
“Approximately two point three million.”
The number sat between us.
“Where did it go?”
“We are tracing it.”
“Daniel.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
I closed my eyes.
“I need to know if he was stealing from us.”
“I do not know that yet.”
The honesty helped more than certainty would have.
Daniel had never been the type to give me comforting answers.
He gave me answers he could defend.
“Then find out.”
“We are already working on it.”
I ended the call and finally went inside.
The first thing I noticed was Ethan’s jacket hanging near the door.
I had not seen it the night before.
Maybe because I was too focused on surviving the moment.
I picked it up.
For years, I had hung his jackets there when he came home late.
A small habit.
Something meaningless.
Something that suddenly felt impossible to continue.
I placed it on the couch.
I did not throw it away.
I was not ready for that.
That afternoon, Marcus came to the house with several documents.
He sat at the dining table where Lily usually did homework and opened his briefcase.
The contrast bothered me.
Legal papers beside a container of crayons.
Adult damage sitting next to childhood normality.
“Claire,” Marcus said, “before we go further, I need you to understand something.”
I looked at him.
“Okay.”
“The company situation is serious, but the personal situation and the business situation are separate.”
“I know.”
“I need you to know because Ethan may try to make this look like revenge.”
I looked down.
“Isn’t it?”
Marcus was quiet.
That pause surprised me.
“I think you are angry.”
“That is obvious.”
“I think you are hurt.”
I looked away.
“That is also obvious.”
“But the decisions you made yesterday were based on agreements that already existed.”
I ran my fingers over the edge of the table.
“I do not want to destroy innocent people.”
“Then do not.”
I looked at him.
“That simple?”
“No.”
Marcus folded his hands.
“That difficult.”
He explained that employees were already asking questions.
Some had heard rumors.
Some had noticed executives leaving meetings early.
Some were worried about layoffs.
The company was not a single person.
That was the part I had forgotten while standing outside Ethan’s office.
A company was hundreds of ordinary people who had bills, children, and rent payments.
People who had no idea what their CEO had done.
“I want an audit,” I said.
Marcus nodded.
“Good.”
“I want employees protected if possible.”
“That may become complicated.”
“Why?”
“Because protecting everyone costs money.”
I looked at him.
“Then find the money.”
Marcus studied me.
“You sound like your grandfather.”
I almost smiled.
“My grandfather would have yelled louder.”
“That is true.”
It was the first time anyone had made me smile since yesterday.
It disappeared quickly.
But it existed.
That mattered.
Three days passed before Ethan came home.
Not to stay.
To collect things.
He texted first.
I almost ignored it.
Then I remembered Lily.
Not every interaction with Ethan could be about my pain.
Some had to be about her.
I replied.
“You can come at six.”
He arrived at exactly six.
That annoyed me.
Part of me wanted him to be late.
A late arrival would have matched the man I thought he was.
Instead, he stood at the door holding himself together.
He looked tired.
Not destroyed.
Not helpless.
Just tired.
That bothered me more than I expected.
People who hurt you were not supposed to still look human.
“Can I come in?”
I stepped aside.
“Yes.”
He walked into the house slowly.
His eyes moved around the room.
The framed photos.
The couch.
The small marks on the wall where Lily had measured her height.
His expression changed.
For a second, he looked like he missed this place.
Then my anger returned.
Because missing something and protecting something were different.
“I’ll get my things.”
I nodded.
He walked upstairs.
I stayed in the kitchen.
I did not follow him.
I did not want another argument.
I did not trust myself not to say something I could not take back.
A few minutes later, I heard him stop.
Then his footsteps came down again.
He was holding something.
The lunch bag.
The one with the blue stars.
I had forgotten it was still on the counter.
“I thought Lily took this.”
“She wanted to.”
His fingers moved over one of the paper stars.
“She made these herself.”
“Yes.”
Silence filled the kitchen.
“She was excited.”
I looked at him.
“She was.”
He swallowed.
“I hate that I ruined that.”
The words surprised me.
Not because they were enough.
May you like
They were not.
But because they were the first words he had said that were not about himself.
