WHILE LEAVING THE SHOWER running and leaping from the bathroom window might have been the easier and fastest option, running off on my mission with zero attire hadn’t exactly appealed. That meant I had the task of heading to my bedroom and tugging on some clothes, and grabbing my boots from the hallway, slipping those on—all without looking like I had an agenda.
On reaching the hallway, my break arrived. My family, as well as Ethan, all seemed to have huddled in the kitchen, from where low mumbles drifted—probably mumbles about me—so after successfully slipping across the hallway to the living room unseen, I’d unlatched the window in there, swung my legs over and out, and hopped to rain-soaked and freezing freedom.
At the end of the driveway, a seven-foot-high brick wall fronted the prop
