Chapter 2 - William Had Lied About Where Ethan Was
William took Ethan from me carefully.
“Buddy, look at Dad.”
Ethan buried his face against his father’s shoulder.
Isabella stayed near the wall.
I expected William to call security immediately.
Instead he turned to me.
“How long was he in there?”
“I don’t know.”
Ethan answered.
“Since yesterday.”
William went completely still.
I felt sick.
The mansion was outside Greenwich, Connecticut, an eleven-thousand-square-foot property built in the 1920s and renovated so many times that old service corridors still ran behind parts of the house.
I had been hired as temporary event staff through a luxury hospitality company.
I knew the Sterlings socially only through work.
But everyone knew Ethan.
His mother, Natalie, had died two years earlier.
After William remarried Isabella, Ethan remained mostly out of public view.
William always said his son was shy.
Now I wondered how much “shy” had concealed.
“Why did everyone downstairs think Ethan was with your mother?” I asked.
William hesitated.
“I told them that.”
“Why?”
“Because Isabella said he’d gone there yesterday.”
I looked at her.
Isabella’s composure returned quickly.
“He was supposed to.”
“Yet you had the key.”
She closed her fingers around it.
“That key opens several storage spaces.”
“Does it open this one?”
No answer.
William stepped toward her.
“Give it to me.”
She refused.
“Isabella.”
Finally, she placed it in his palm.
It fit the hidden-room lock perfectly.
William stared at the key.
Then Ethan lifted his head.
“Dad?”
“Yes?”
“She took my red backpack too.”
William’s expression changed again.
“What red backpack?”
“The one from Mommy.”
Isabella cut in.
“He’s confused.”
Ethan started crying.
“No, I’m not.”
William looked at his wife.
“What was in the backpack?”
Isabella said nothing.
That silence was different.
May you like
Not fear about being caught imprisoning a child.
Fear about whatever Ethan had found before she locked him away.
