Chapter 3 - The First Escape
Sophia told Ethan she had been checking the weather.
He held out his hand.
“Give me the phone.”
She placed it in his palm.
Ethan opened the recent applications. The message had been sent through an encrypted account hidden inside a calculator program. Nothing appeared unusual.
He examined the browser history.
Weather forecasts filled the screen.
“You’re nervous,” he said.
“I’m tired.”
“Then sleep.”
He kissed her forehead and left the room with her phone.
Sophia waited until she heard the study door close.
Her entire body trembled.
The message was gone, but the risk remained.
If Ethan checked the home network records, he might discover the encrypted connection.
Sophia moved quickly.
She opened the closet and removed the old suitcase. Inside its torn lining were photographs, medical records, and handwritten descriptions of every assault she could remember.
She took out the notebook.
March 4. Ethan grabbed my throat after Liam called.
March 19. He pushed me down the cellar stairs.
April 2. He threatened to hurt Rachel.
April 11. He locked me in the bedroom for nineteen hours.
Sophia closed the notebook.
Evidence would mean nothing if she did not survive long enough to use it.
She slipped into the guest room and unlocked the small window.
Cold air entered.
The drop looked higher than she remembered.
Below, wet grass reflected the moonlight.
Sophia tied two bedsheets together and secured them around the radiator pipe. She lowered the suitcase first. It struck the ground quietly.
Then she climbed onto the window ledge.
A floorboard creaked behind her.
Sophia froze.
Ethan stood in the doorway.
He looked at the sheets.
Then at the open window.
Then at his wife.
“What are you doing?”
Sophia tried to climb out.
Ethan crossed the room and pulled her backward by the waist.
She screamed.
He threw her onto the carpet and shut the window.
“You were leaving me.”
Sophia crawled toward the door.
Ethan stepped on the bedsheet, trapping it beneath his shoe.
“You were going to destroy everything.”
“You already destroyed everything.”
His expression became empty.
That frightened her more than his rage.
Ethan knelt beside her.
“Who helped you?”
“No one.”
“Liam?”
“No.”
“Rachel?”
“No.”
He grabbed her hair.
“Who helped you?”
“Nobody.”
Ethan dragged the suitcase through the window. It hit the wall and burst open.
The hidden lining tore.
The notebook slid across the floor.
For a moment, neither of them breathed.
Ethan picked it up.
He read the first page.
Then the second.
His face changed with every line.
Sophia used the distraction to run.
She reached the hallway before he caught her.
The next thing she remembered was waking on the bedroom floor.
Her head throbbed.
Blood had dried near her temple.
Ethan sat in a chair beside the bed, reading the notebook.
“You made me sound like a monster.”
Sophia struggled to sit up.
“You are one.”
“No. Monsters enjoy hurting people.”
“You do enjoy it.”
“I enjoy correcting disobedience.”
He closed the notebook.
“That’s different.”
Sophia looked toward the door.
It was locked.
Ethan followed her gaze.
“You can’t leave tonight.”
“You can’t keep me here forever.”
“No.”
He placed the notebook inside a metal wastebasket.
“Only until you understand.”
He struck a match.
Sophia watched the pages burn.
The photographs followed.
The medical documents curled into black ash.
Ethan remained beside the fire until nothing recognizable remained.
Then he unlocked the door.
“You’re going to tell Liam that you’re traveling with me.”
“I won’t.”
“You will.”
“And if I don’t?”
Ethan looked toward the suitcase.
“I found the money behind the baseboard.”
Sophia’s heart sank.
“I also found your mother’s earrings.”
He reached into his pocket and displayed the pearls she had worn at their wedding.
“You wouldn’t.”
“I know how much they mean to you.”
He held one earring between his fingers.
Then he dropped it into the remaining flame.
Sophia lunged forward, but Ethan blocked her.
The pearl blackened.
“You’ll call your brother,” Ethan said. “You’ll sound happy. And you’ll tell him we’re leaving for Vermont.”
Sophia began to cry.
Ethan handed her the phone.
Liam answered immediately.
“Sophia?”
“Hi.”
“Are you all right?”
“Yes.”
“Where have you been?”
“Ethan and I are going away for a while.”
Silence followed.
“Where?”
“Vermont.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Which hotel?”
Sophia looked at Ethan.
He shook his head.
“We haven’t decided.”
Liam’s voice became careful.
“Where did Dad hide the red bicycle?”
Ethan held the second pearl earring over the flame.
Sophia closed her eyes.
“Liam, please stop asking me that.”
“Just answer.”
“I have to go.”
“Sophia.”
She ended the call.
Ethan placed the pearl earring back in his pocket.
“Good girl.”
The following morning, they did not travel to Vermont.
Ethan took Sophia to a private medical clinic under a false name.
A doctor examined the injury near her temple.
“She fell while packing,” Ethan explained.
The doctor looked at Sophia.
“Is that what happened?”
Ethan stood behind him.
Sophia saw her reflection in the metal cabinet.
Bruised.
Exhausted.
Terrified.
“Yes,” she whispered.
The doctor treated the wound.
Before Sophia left, a nurse slipped a folded card into her hand.
It contained the number of a domestic violence shelter.
Sophia hid it in her sleeve.
In the parking lot, Ethan stopped beside the car.
“Open your hands.”
Sophia obeyed.
The card lay in her palm.
Ethan took it.
He read the number.
Then he looked toward the clinic entrance.
“Which nurse gave you this?”
“I don’t know.”
May you like
Ethan smiled faintly.
“We’ll find out.”
