Chapter 9 - Ethan Had Been Moving The Pieces
Ethan Grant was not difficult to find.
He owned a small records-management company in Richmond.
That business gave him exactly what Detective Bennett feared.
Access.
Old educational records.
Archived client files.
Contact databases.
Names.
Histories.
Enough information to build believable lies.
Police obtained warrants based on the accumulating evidence.
What they found on Ethan's office computer transformed the case.
Draft versions of Marcus's forged authorization.
A cloned version of his business email signature.
Copies of Evelyn's contact information.
Photographs of Claire's car.
A scanned copy of Maya's birthday invitation.
Marcus stared at the evidence photographs.
“He planned the birthday.”
Bennett corrected him.
“He planned something around the birthday.”
The distinction mattered.
Investigators also found emails between Ethan and someone using an encrypted account.
The messages discussed “pressure points.”
Claire.
Sophie.
Marcus.
Maya.
Rebecca.
Each person had a role.
But Ethan hadn't invented every conflict.
He exploited real ones.
Claire really believed Maya needed more independence.
Marcus really had been traveling too much.
Maya really missed him.
Sophie really distrusted Claire.
Rebecca really knew Thomas Walsh.
Claire really had lied about knowing Jenna.
Truth made the manufactured story stronger.
“Why?” Marcus asked.
Bennett didn't know yet.
Ethan was missing.
His office had been emptied of personal items two days earlier.
His vehicle was found at Richmond International Airport.
No confirmed flight under his name.
Claire sat beside Marcus during the briefing.
He no longer knew what their relationship was.
She had not forged the documents.
But she had taken Maya to the appointment.
She had torn up Maya's wish.
She had told Maya that Marcus was tired of her.
No conspiracy erased those choices.
Claire seemed to understand.
“I'll leave tonight.”
Marcus looked at her.
“Where?”
“My apartment.”
“You still have it?”
“I never sold it.”
That surprised him.
They had discussed Claire moving in permanently after the wedding they were planning for spring.
Another hidden exit.
Another piece of uncertainty.
Claire looked ashamed.
“I kept it because I wasn't sure this would work.”
Marcus nodded slowly.
“At least that's honest.”
She flinched.
He regretted the cruelty but not the truth behind it.
Claire packed.
Before leaving, she asked to speak with Maya.
Marcus said no.
Not yet.
Claire accepted it.
That mattered, but it wasn't enough.
After she left, Marcus sat beside Maya's bed.
She was drawing a picture.
“What are you making?”
“My birthday again.”
His heart tightened.
In the drawing, the cake was enormous.
Maya stood beside it.
Marcus stood beside her.
Claire wasn't there.
“Can we have another birthday?” Maya asked.
“Absolutely.”
“Without people?”
“If you want.”
“Just you and me?”
Marcus smiled sadly.
“Just us.”
Maya colored quietly.
Then she said, “Daddy?”
“Yeah?”
“Was my wish bad?”
Marcus's throat closed.
“No.”
“You're busy.”
“I am.”
“So maybe Claire was right.”
He put the crayons aside.
“No, sweetheart. Being busy doesn't mean I want less of you.”
“Then why are you gone?”
There it was.
The question beneath everything.
No villain had invented it.
Marcus had.
Not intentionally.
But absence leaves space.
Other people had filled that space with explanations.
Marcus took her hand.
“I thought working hard was how I took care of you.”
Maya waited.
“I forgot that being with you is part of taking care of you too.”
“Can you work less?”
“Yes.”
It would cost him.
Clients.
Money.
Growth.
Maybe opportunities.
For the first time, those costs looked correctly sized.
Maya hugged him.
Later, after she fell asleep, Marcus found her original birthday wish on the kitchen counter.
Police had returned it after photographing it.
He read the front.
I wish Daddy would stay home more because I miss him even when I'm having fun.
Marcus cried alone at the table.
Then he turned the card over.
The threatening message remained.
After tonight, Maya won't be a problem anymore.
Bennett had assumed Ethan wrote it.
But forensic analysis came back the next morning.
The handwriting didn't match Ethan.
May you like
It matched someone else.
Someone Marcus had trusted with Maya for her entire life.
