Chapter 2: What the Empty Rooms Said
Part 2 ⬇️
Ethan's breathing changed the moment he opened it.
I heard the paper unfold through the phone.
"What is this?" His voice dropped low.
Not angry yet.
Confused.
The way someone sounds right before everything lands.
"It's a letter," I said.
"I wrote it while you were at the pool."
Silence.
Then — "Madison.
These are divorce papers."
"The top sheet is a letter.
The papers are underneath."
Another long pause.
I could hear him moving through the empty house.
Each room echoing back at him.
"You had these prepared?
How long have you been planning this?"
I didn't answer that.
"Where is my son?"
"He's safe.
He's with me."
"That's not what I asked."
"I know."
His voice shifted then.
Something harder came into it.
Something I recognized.
"My mother warned me about you.
She said you'd do something like this the moment things got difficult."
I looked down at my son's face.
His eyes were closed.
His breath was slow and even.
"Ethan," I said quietly.
"Read the letter."
He went silent again.
And when he finally spoke, his voice was different.
Because the letter didn't just explain why I left.
It told him what I had found on his phone three weeks before his due date trip.
The name.
The messages.
The hotel receipt.
He hadn't turned the screen facedown fast enough.
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What Madison found on that phone — and what happens when Denise gets involved — is worse than anyone expected.
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