Chapter 7 - The Boy Who Stopped Speaking|
Ethan refused breakfast the following morning.
He sat in the sunroom wearing blue pajamas, staring at a plate of untouched toast.
Dr. Harris had examined him twice.
Physically, he was fine.
But something inside him had changed.
Dominic stood near the windows, speaking quietly with Gabriel.
I entered carrying fresh towels.
Ethan barely noticed me.
Then Lily slipped around my legs.
“Ethan?”
He looked up.
“Hi, Lily.”
She approached his chair.
“Are you mad at me?”
Ethan frowned.
“Why would I be mad?”
“Because I broke your cake.”
He studied her small face.
Then shook his head.
“No.”
Lily climbed onto the empty chair beside him.
“I thought you were gonna die.”
The words were innocent.
Devastating.
Ethan stared at her.
Then tears filled his eyes.
“I thought so, too.”
I froze.
Dominic stopped speaking.
Ethan wiped his cheeks angrily.
“I heard the guards talking. They said somebody wanted me gone.”
Dominic crossed the room.
“Ethan.”
The boy looked up.
“Why does somebody hate me, Dad?”
Dominic's face tightened.
I had watched that man negotiate million-dollar deals without blinking.
But his son's question seemed to destroy every answer he possessed.
“Nobody who matters hates you.”
“Then why did they do that?”
Dominic knelt beside him.
“I don't know yet.”
Ethan whispered:
“Was it because of Mommy?”
Nobody spoke.
Dominic's wife, Elena, had died two years earlier in a highway accident.
Ethan had been six.
From that day forward, the boy had rarely mentioned her.
Dominic's voice became softer.
“What makes you ask that?”
Ethan twisted his hands together.
“Mommy used to get scared when Mr. Voss visited.”
I felt a strange chill.
Simon Voss was Dominic's longtime attorney.
A distinguished man in his late fifties who wore immaculate suits and spoke as though everyone around him needed his permission to breathe.
Dominic glanced toward Gabriel.
“What did your mother say about Simon?”
Ethan shook his head.
“I don't remember.”
“Try, son.”
Ethan looked down.
“She said he kept changing the papers.”
Dominic stopped moving.
“What papers?”
“The ones in her blue folder.”
His small voice trembled.
“She told me never to sign anything he gave me.”
Dominic slowly sat beside him.
“Ethan, did you tell anyone else about this?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because Uncle Simon told me Mommy was confused.”
Gabriel stepped forward.
Dominic raised a hand, signaling him to remain silent.
Then Ethan said something that made the room feel suddenly smaller.
“Dad?”
“Yes?”
“Before Mommy died, I heard her fighting with him.”
Dominic's expression turned dangerously calm.
“About what?”
May you like
Ethan swallowed.
“About what would happen to me if you were gone.”
