Chapter 2 - My Husband’s First Question
Ethan entered carrying flowers.
White lilies.
The same flowers that had been arranged around Emily’s coffin six years earlier.
I would not learn that detail until later.
At the time, all I saw was my husband standing beside my bed with concern carefully arranged across his handsome face.
“Claire.”
He leaned forward.
I flinched.
He stopped.
Good.
A uniformed officer stood outside the room. Detective Mason watched through adjoining observation area.
Ethan did not know the room had been set up.
“Where’s Mom?”
I whispered:
“I don’t know.”
That was rehearsed.
Mason did not want me lying extensively.
Just avoid revealing arrest until Ethan said what he came to say.
Ethan touched the rail.
“You scared me.”
I almost laughed.
He had shoved me over a balcony.
I remembered his hand against my shoulder.
Not every second.
Concussion had left gaps.
But enough.
I remembered confronting him in bedroom.
Messages on his tablet.
A woman named Sabrina.
Hotel confirmations.
I followed him onto balcony after he tried walking away.
“You’re imagining things,” he said.
Then I threatened to leave.
The next image in my memory:
his face changing.
His hand.
My body moving backward.
The sky.
Then pavement.
Now he smiled like devoted husband.
“Doctors say you’ll recover.”
“Maybe.”
“You will.”
He glanced toward door.
Then lowered his voice.
“The police talked to you?”
I stared at him.
“Yes.”
His fingers tightened around bed rail.
“What did you tell them?”
Not:
What did they ask?
What did you tell them?
“I don’t remember much.”
Relief moved through his eyes before he hid it.
“Good.”
My heart thudded.
“Good?”
“I mean, don’t force yourself. Your brain needs rest.”
Then:
“You remember being outside?”
“A little.”
“With me?”
I said nothing.
He leaned closer.
“Claire, you were upset. You’d been drinking.”
“No.”
His expression barely changed.
“The cocktails.”
“I didn’t drink them.”
“You had wine.”
“No.”
He exhaled.
“You’re confused.”
There it was.
Emily:
drunk.
unstable.
confused.
Me:
same script.
Then Ethan said:
“You climbed onto railing.”
My skin went cold.
“I did?”
“You were hysterical.”
“Why?”
“The messages.”
“What messages?”
He paused.
“Exactly.”
He had walked into trap of his own certainty.
If I remembered nothing, how did he know what triggered me?
Then he smiled gently.
“You found something on my tablet and misunderstood.”
“Sabrina?”
His face emptied.
Only for second.
Enough.
“You remember her?”
“Yes.”
“Who is she?”
“A client.”
I closed eyes as though exhausted.
Then whispered:
“Did I jump?”
He answered too quickly.
“Yes.”
That contradicted what he had told first responders.
According to Mason, Ethan said he had been inside bathroom and heard crash.
He claimed he had not seen fall.
Now he was telling me I climbed and jumped.
I let silence sit.
Then Ethan leaned so close his breath touched my ear.
“If they ask again, tell them you don’t remember.”
My stomach turned.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t want your confusion turning into something ugly.”
I whispered:
“Like Emily?”
He froze.
Utterly.
The name had not been part of plan.
I had said it because anger beat caution.
Ethan stepped back.
“Who told you that name?”
I opened eyes.
He was no longer pretending.
“Who is Emily?”
“Claire.”
“Your first wife?”
His face changed again.
Then the door opened.
Mason entered.
“Mr. Morgan.”
Ethan looked from him to me.
“What is this?”
“Your mother has been taken into custody following an incident in this room.”
“What incident?”
Mason did not answer beyond necessary.
“We’d like you to come with us voluntarily for an interview.”
“Am I under arrest?”
“No.”
“Then I’m leaving.”
“That is your right.”
Ethan looked at me.
For first time, fear.
Not grief.
Not love.
Fear.
He left without touching me.
Mason waited.
“You went off script.”
“I know.”
“Don’t do it again.”
“I’m sorry.”
Then:
“But you heard him.”
“Yes.”
“Is that enough?”
“For what?”
“To arrest him.”
“No.”
I hated answer.
“But it matters.”
Then Mason showed me subpoena return from Ethan’s phone provider.
The warrant process had begun after Margaret’s recorded statements and reopened Emily investigation.
Location history from night of my fall placed Ethan on balcony with me during the minutes he claimed to be inside.
Still not proof shove.
Then hospital security called.
Ethan had not left building.
He had gone to parking structure.
And approached a woman sitting in a black SUV.
Sabrina.
Mason showed still image.
The woman from Ethan’s messages.
She was not merely a client.
And according to DMV records, her full name was Sabrina Cole.
May you like
Emily Morgan’s younger sister.
Cliffhanger: My husband had been having an affair with the sister of the first wife who died from the same balcony—and Sabrina had been secretly helping Detective Mason for months.
