Chapter 10 - The Last Supper of Deceit
That evening,
I returned to the house one last time to finish what I had started.
The house was dark,
the silence inside feeling like a physical presence.
I didn't turn on the lights.
I just walked through the rooms in the moonlight,
remembering the woman who had lived here.
I found Ethan in the study.
He was sitting in the dark,
a bottle of scotch on the desk,
most of it gone.
He didn't look up when I entered.
"You really did it,"
he whispered,
his voice thick with alcohol and defeat.
"You burned it all down."
"You lit the fire,
Ethan,"
I said,
standing in the doorway.
"I just stopped trying to put it out."
He looked up then,
the moonlight catching the wetness on his cheeks.
"I loved you,
Mabel.
In my own way,
I did."
"Your way was a cage,"
I replied.
"Your way was a series of lies designed to keep me in my place while you explored yours.
That isn't love.
That’s ownership."
He reached for the bottle,
his hand shaking.
"What am I supposed to do now?
I have nothing.
No job,
no wife,
no future."
"You have the truth,"
I said,
turning to leave.
"And for a man like you,
I imagine that’s the heaviest burden of all."
I walked out of the study,
down the hall,
and out the front door.
I didn't look back at the house.
I didn't look back at the broken man inside.
I got into my car and drove away,
the city lights blurring into a sea of possibilities.
The first five chapters of my new life were over.
The next ten would be about rebuilding.
But as I drove,
my phone buzzed one last time.
An unknown number.
I pulled over and looked at the message.
You think you won, but you don't know the half of what Ethan was doing in Chicago. I have the recordings. Meet me tomorrow at the pier or I send them to the police first.
My heart skipped a beat.
It wasn't Chloe.
May you like
The tone was different.
The game wasn't over.
