Chương 4
Then he looked at both children.
“I need you to listen to me.”
Sophie’s eyes filled.
He kept his voice even.
“I adopted you because I wanted to be your father. That did not expire today. It doesn’t depend on your mother being happy with me. It doesn’t depend on where anybody lives. You do not have to earn it.”
Noah wiped his face with his sleeve.
“Are you mad at us?”
The question hit harder than anything Natalie had said.
“No.”
“You look mad.”
“I am.”
Noah’s shoulders tightened.
“Not at you.”
That did not immediately fix it.
Ethan saw that.
He hated that he had expected it to.
He exhaled and sat lower so they did not have to look up at him.
“I’m scared too.”
Sophie blinked.
He had not planned to say that.
Maybe that was why it helped.
Her shoulders lowered a fraction.
“Of what?” she asked.
Ethan looked at the closed office door.
“Of finding out I missed something important.”
Sophie did not reassure him.
Good.
She was nine.
It was not her job.
Downstairs, a door opened.
Coley called his name.
Ethan brought the children with him.
The handbag was no longer on the floor.
Natalie was standing near the front door with her arms folded.
Ramirez held a small evidence envelope.
Ethan could see the black card inside.
Natalie’s face was pale.
“There’s an allegation that the card is property belonging to the home security system and that it was removed from an envelope addressed to Mr. Cole,” Ramirez said. “Mrs. Cole disputes that. We’re documenting the dispute and preserving the item while we consult further.”
Natalie laughed once.
“Preserving. That’s cute.”
Ramirez ignored the comment.
“What happens now?” Ethan asked.
“We need to discuss tonight’s living arrangements.”
“I’m taking my children,” Natalie said.
Sophie went rigid.
Ethan felt it through the hand she had slipped into his.
Ramirez turned to Natalie.
“That is not what I said.”
“They are minors. I am their mother.”
“And he is their legal father?”
Natalie’s silence answered before Ethan did.
“Yes,” he said.
The adoption had been final for more than four years.
Ramirez nodded.
“Given the statements we’ve taken tonight, I strongly recommend nobody attempt to remove the children from this residence until we finish the immediate safety assessment.”
Natalie stared at Ethan.
“You planned this.”
“No.”
“You brought police into our family.”
“You pulled a chair out from under Noah.”
“I caught a chair with my shoe.”
“You hit Sophie.”
“I did not.”
Sophie flinched.
Ethan stopped talking.
Ramirez stepped between them.
“This is not helping.”
Natalie grabbed the back of a cream armchair, fingers whitening against the fabric.
“I have somewhere I can stay.”
“Good,” Ramirez said.
Natalie looked offended by the simplicity of the answer.
She went upstairs with Coley to collect essential belongings.
Ethan remained downstairs with the children.
Noah sat on the floor.
Not the sofa.
The floor.
He lined up three decorative books from the coffee table by height.
Ethan watched him do it.
Sophie sat beside Ethan but did not lean against him anymore.
Five minutes passed.
Then ten.
A siren sounded far away and faded.
The chandelier had stopped moving.
The fallen chair was still slightly crooked beside the dining table.
Ethan went over and set it straight.
Noah immediately looked up.
Ethan almost apologized for touching it.
Instead he said, “I’m going to move it against the wall for tonight.”
Noah nodded.
So Ethan did.
Natalie came down carrying a small suitcase.
She had changed nothing about her appearance. Her bun was still perfect. Her dress still fell smoothly to her ankles. The only sign that anything had happened was the absence of her handbag.
She stopped in front of Sophie.
Ethan stepped between them again.
Natalie looked at him.
“I’m allowed to say goodbye to my daughter.”
Sophie spoke from behind Ethan.
“I don’t want you to.”
Natalie’s face changed.
It was not anger at first.
It was injury.
Raw enough that Ethan almost felt sorry for her.
Then came anger.
“You have no idea what you’re doing.”
Sophie stared at the floor.
Natalie looked at Noah.
“And you?”
He did not answer.
Her mouth trembled.
She recovered.
“Fine.”
She walked out through the open front door.
At the threshold, she turned toward Ethan.
“You think tonight makes you a father?”
He said nothing.
“You’re never here.”
That one landed.
Natalie saw it.
For an instant she seemed relieved to have found somewhere soft enough to cut.
Then Ramirez escorted her to the waiting car.
Ethan watched the taillights disappear through the gates.
He closed the front door.
The sound was remarkably small.
Noah asked, “Is she coming back tonight?”
“No.”
“Tomorrow?”
“I don’t know.”
“Ever?”
Ethan looked at him.
“I don’t know.”
Noah nodded as if Ethan had given the right answer.
Maybe because it was the first answer nobody was pretending to know.
That night nobody slept where they usually slept.
Sophie refused her bedroom.
Noah refused his.
They ended up in Ethan’s room, Sophie on the upholstered bench near the window and Noah curled on top of the duvet in his clothes.
Ethan changed into sweatpants and an old Northwestern T-shirt he had owned since before either child was born.
He found two toothbrushes in the guest bathroom.
Sophie stared at his shirt.
“You went there?”
“Northwestern?”
She nodded.
“For graduate school.”
“I thought you went to Notre Dame.”
“That was college.”
“You went to two colleges?”
“Apparently I was difficult to educate.”
A tiny smile appeared.
It disappeared quickly, but Ethan had seen it.
Noah had not brushed his teeth yet.
He was standing at the sink, squeezing toothpaste onto his finger.
Ethan stared.
“Buddy.”
“I can’t find the brush.”
“It’s in your other hand.”
Noah looked down.
The toothbrush was in his left hand.
For one second the three of them were silent.
Then Sophie laughed.
Not much.
A surprised little burst.
May you like
Noah laughed too.
Ethan leaned against the doorframe.
