Chapter 2
1083 Words
I turned slowly.
Ethan stood at the bend of the staircase, a grocery bag in one hand, clearly just back from the store.
The shock on his face. The panic he couldn't quite hide.
He looked at me. Then he looked past me at Clara and the child.
The color drained from his face.
I opened my mouth. My throat had locked up. Nothing came out.
All I could do was stare.
Stare at this man I had been married to for five years.
From inside the apartment, the child's voice rang out again.
"Daddy, you're home!"
It was a bright, clear little voice.
Those three words drove into me like nails and rooted me to the spot.
Clara scooped the child up and retreated into the apartment.
My hand on the doorframe was shaking.
"Ethan." My voice came out steadier than I felt. "What did he just call you?"
Ethan's face had gone the color of paper. His lips moved. No sound came out.
Then the in-laws appeared. Mr. and Mrs. Ward stepped out from the apartment, a cluster of nosy relatives craning their heads behind them.
"Who's this? It's Christmas, Ethan — a friend of yours?"
Mrs. Ward looked me up and down, eyebrows pinched together, with the expression of someone who had just stepped in something unpleasant.
"Stop making a scene — the whole family can hear you. If you have something to say, take it outside. Don't embarrass everyone in here."
A laugh escaped me.
It sounded ugly even to my own ears.
"Funny that your own daughter-in-law is a stranger to you. I've been sending money and gifts every holiday — did they all just disappear into thin air?"
Mrs. Ward's face changed. Her voice turned shrill.
"What are you talking about? We have never received a single thing from you. Stop throwing out accusations!"
The relatives had begun whispering among themselves. Their voices were low, but every word found my ears.
"Ethan's wife? Hasn't it always been Clara?"
"Right — Clara's been here for years, looking after his parents, gave them their first grandchild."
"Who is this woman? I've never seen her before."
They murmured on, unhurried about it.
"You'd better open your ears." Mrs. Ward's voice climbed. "Clara is our son's lawfully wedded wife. Everyone in this room came to the wedding."
Lawfully wedded wife.
The words landed like a hammer to the skull.
I looked at Ethan.
"Say something." My voice was very calm. Calm enough to frighten even me.
He raised his head, his eyes sliding away from mine.
"Shana... just go. We can talk when I get back."
"When you get back? There's nothing left to talk about later. Tell everyone right now — who is your wife?"
The child had been frightened by the commotion. He started to cry, reaching out his small hands.
"Daddy, hold me."
Ethan looked at the child. Then he looked at me.
His lips were trembling.
Then he spoke.
His voice was low. But it carried perfectly to every person in that hallway.
"Shana, we broke up a long time ago. Why do you keep coming around?"
"Today is a family holiday. Please leave."
Mrs. Ward seized on it immediately. "Hear that? Go! One more minute and I'm calling the police!"
Mr. Ward had already started shoving me. "Making a scene on Christmas! Get out!"
I didn't move. I kept my eyes on Ethan.
Five years.
More than eighteen hundred days and nights.
The apartment we had picked out together. The furniture we had chosen together. The cat we had adopted together.
He said he was saving up to take me abroad.
He said I was the only one he would ever love.
Every word of it a lie.
"Last Wednesday was your birthday." My voice stayed flat. "I bought you a watch you said you'd wear for the rest of your life."
"Last month, when your mother was sick, I transferred 5,000 dollars. You told me it was for her supplements."
"Want me to keep going? First of every month, automatic transfer: 3,000 dollars. Memo: living expenses for Mom and Dad."
Clara had gone pale.
The relatives started up again.
Mr. Ward lunged for my phone.
I stepped back and slipped it into my pocket.
"Don't bother. I've backed it up everywhere."
"Shana..." Ethan finally spoke, his voice raw and rough. "Can we please do this in private..."
"Do what in private? Talk about how you conned me for five years? Talk about how you used my money to support another family?"
I looked at the child.
Three, maybe four years old.
That meant in the very first year of our marriage, Ethan had already —
My stomach turned over.
"Ethan!" Clara burst into tears. "How could she — the child is right here, he doesn't need to hear this —"
The boy, startled, began to cry too.
"Don't cry, don't cry, Grandma's here." Mrs. Ward wrapped her arms around the two of them. "That horrible woman — Grandma's going to throw her out right now!"
She came at me.
I stumbled back, losing my footing.
The gift bag slipped from my fingers and hit the floor.
Wine, gourmet teas, skincare products — everything scattered across the hallway.
One of the relatives poked her head out.
"My goodness, she really did bring quite a lot..."
Mrs. Ward kicked the bag aside.
"Nobody wants her filthy things!"
She kept shoving.
Ethan just stood there.
He stood there while his parents humiliated me. Did nothing. Said nothing.
I felt like a ghost in someone else's home.
One final shove sent me stumbling backward through the door.
It slammed shut in my face.
I sat down on the floor of the hallway and stayed there for a long time.
Eventually, the door upstairs opened. A woman in her sixties came down carrying a bag of trash.
She spotted me and crouched down, pretending to tie her shoe.
Her voice was barely above a whisper. She spoke quickly.
"A few years back, another woman came around making trouble. Said she was Ethan's girlfriend."
"His parents called her a lunatic. I don't know how it ended."
She straightened up and kept walking with her trash bag.
At the bend in the staircase, she paused and looked back.
"Young lady. Take it from me — this family is trouble."
I sat there at their door for a long time, thinking.
Ethan Ward. Let's see just how much trouble you really are.
- Writer
