Chapter 6
"Just this once."
I walked into the living room and saw Ethan on top of Paige.
His shirt was on the rug. Her dress was bunched around her waist.
The pharmacy bag slipped from my hand. They both froze.
Ethan jerked away from her, frantically pulling his clothes back into place.
"Claire, let me explain."
I stared at his shirt. Before dinner, I'd rolled up those sleeves for him.
"I wasn't thinking." He came toward me. "I never meant to—"
He reached for me, then noticed my torn sleeve.
"What happened to your hand?"
I stepped back. His hand closed on empty air.
"Who did this?"
"Now you have time to ask! I called you so many times!"
He grabbed his phone from the coffee table. The screen lit up with more than a dozen missed calls.
His face went white.
"I didn't hear it. Claire, where were you?"
"By the laundromat. A man tried to drag me into the alley."
His mouth opened, but nothing came out.
"When I called you, I thought you'd come save me."
Paige started crying.
"I'm sorry, but he promised he'd marry me. I only asked for this once. I didn't mean to hurt you."
She was covering herself with my blanket.
"Claire, you've had him for six years. Can't you let us have this?"
I picked up the pharmacy bag and set it on the coffee table.
"Your mother's medicine."
Ethan reached out to stop me. I went around him, collected my documents and computer from my office, then went upstairs to pack.
Halfway through zipping the suitcase, pain pulled at my wound, and my fingers lost their grip.
He crouched down immediately.
"Let me. Stop packing for now. We need to get you to the hospital."
I pulled the suitcase closer to my feet.
"Move."
"We'll go to counseling on Tuesday. Mom and Paige will move out tomorrow. I'll tell them right now."
I put my charger in the suitcase.
"I heard all of this before you took your clothes off."
He stayed crouched there, his hand still suspended in the air.
"I'll cut her off completely. Look at me, Claire. You're the one I love."
I looked at him.
He lowered his head.
I opened the rideshare app and entered Nora's address, then sent her a message.
[Can I come over?]
Her reply came almost immediately.
[Yes. I'll leave the door unlocked.]
Ethan blocked the bedroom doorway.
"At least wait until morning. After what just happened to you, how can I let you go out alone?"
"That's why I called a car."
The front door opened downstairs. Vivian came in, saw my suitcase, and immediately asked what had happened.
Paige ran to her, crying.
I carried my suitcase downstairs, with Ethan following behind me.
"Mom, stop. I'm going with Claire."
Vivian grabbed his arm.
"Look at Paige! You're going to leave her like this?"
"Let go."
"Claire, do you have to let this get completely out of hand tonight?"
Paige grabbed him too.
"Ethan, don't go. You're all I have now."
I opened the door. My phone showed that my ride had arrived.
The driver got out and took my suitcase. I found my key in my bag and set it on the front steps.
Ethan pulled free of them and hurried outside, catching up to me beside the car.
"Claire, come back. This is your home."
I glanced at the open door. All three of them were standing there.
"That's what I thought when I came home."
The car door shut.
The driver asked where I was going.
I gave him Nora's address.