Chapter 5 - THE TRAP CLOSES"He’s there," I whispered, staring at the screen.
Lena frowned, leaning over the table. "Who?"
"Ethan."
Before Lena could respond, I shoved the papers back into the envelope, grabbed my purse, and bolted from the booth. The bell above the door jangled furiously behind me as I pushed out into the cold midday air.
The diner parking lot was bleak, surrounded by rusted chain-link fencing and overgrown weeds.
My sedan sat right where I had left it.
And Ethan was standing by the driver's side window, talking calmly to Owen through the glass.
I broke into a dead sprint across the asphalt. "Ethan! Don't you dare touch him!"
Ethan turned around slowly. He wasn't wearing his usual corporate suit; he wore a rumpled gray hoodie, his hair unbrushed, looking like a man who had been running from his own shadow for weeks. But his expression wasn't panicked. It was terrifyingly calm.
He opened the car door from the outside, pulling Owen out by his jacket.
"Dad! Let me go, you're hurting me!" Owen cried out, struggling against him.
"Shut up, Owen," Ethan said sharply, his voice cold and flat.
I skidded to a halt a few feet away, my chest heaving, my hands balled into fists. "Let him go, Ethan. Right now. Or I swear to God I will call the police and tell them everything."
Ethan let out a low, humorless chuckle. He looked at me, then back at Owen, and then toward the diner door where Lena was now standing, watching us with her arms crossed over her trench coat like an executioner.
"The police, Mara?" Ethan smiled, a sickening, familiar grin. "Do you really think the police are going to help you untangle this mess? You think a judge is going to look at forged school enrollment records, a stolen identity, and a secret family and just hand you a neat little happy ending?"
"You abandoned them," I spat, my voice shaking with rage. "You had another family, you lied to me for a decade, and then you left them to starve!"
"I left because they became a liability," Ethan said coldly, tightening his grip on Owen's shoulder. "Just like you're becoming a liability right now, Mara."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
Ethan pulled a set of car keys from his hoodie pocket and tossed them into the air, catching them with a sickening casualness. "It means we’re leaving. All of us."
"You're out of your mind," I stepped forward.
"Am I?" Ethan’s eyes flashed with sudden, feral panic. "I embezzled funds from my firm to keep Lena quiet for the last five years. The auditors found out this morning. Federal agents are already at my office. I am a ruined man, Mara. But I am not going to prison alone."
Owen let out a terrified sob. "Mom! Help me!"
Before I could lunge forward, a second car—a black, unmarked SUV—screeched into the parking lot, blocking my only exit. The passenger door flew open, and a towering man in a dark jacket stepped out, blocking the path between me and my son.
Ethan shoved Owen toward the SUV. "Get in the back. Now."
"No!" I screamed, lunging for Ethan.
He pushed me hard, sending me crashing backward onto the gravel. Pain shot through my palms and knees, but I scrambled back up instantly, desperate, ready to tear him apart with my bare hands.
Lena was running across the parking lot now, screaming Ethan’s name.
"Ethan, stop! Leave the boy out of this! He's your son, too!" Lena shrieked, grabbing at his sleeve.
Ethan didn't even look at her. He backhanded her with a brutal, casual swiftness, sending Lena sprawling onto the asphalt.
"You should have kept your mouth shut, Lena," Ethan snarled, climbing into the driver's seat of the SUV while the hired muscle shoved Owen into the back.
The doors slammed shut. The engine roared to life.
May you like
I lunged forward, grabbing the rear door handle as the SUV peeled out of the parking lot, spraying gravel into my face.
"OWEN!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, running alongside the accelerating vehicle until my legs gave out and I hit the ground hard, watching my son's terrified face press against the rear window as he disappeared into the distance.
