Chapter 2 - ONE-WAY TO ZURICH
Celeste tried to recover first.
“It isn’t what you think.”
Ethan laughed once.
Richard was half dressed outside his late wife’s bedroom.
“What part am I misunderstanding?”
Celeste stepped down one stair.
“Sophie had a panic attack. She climbed into the suitcase.”
Sophie stiffened in his arms.
“No, I didn’t.”
Celeste’s eyes flashed at the child.
Ethan saw it.
“Don’t look at her like that.”
Richard finally spoke.
“Ethan, everybody’s upset. Let’s handle this privately.”
“You’re in my house with your pants open.”
Richard looked away.
Ethan picked up the second ticket.
CELESTE HALE.
Same flight.
Same one-way itinerary.
The travel folder contained more.
A reservation at Montreux House, a private residential school outside Zurich.
A notarized parental travel consent.
His signature.
Forged.
Ethan stared at the page.
“I never signed this.”
Celeste’s face changed.
Richard moved toward him.
“Let counsel review it.”
“You are counsel’s boss.”
“I’m your CFO.”
“You are also the man standing outside my dead wife’s bedroom half naked.”
Sophie buried her face against Ethan.
“Daddy, she said I had to be gone before Monday.”
“Why Monday?”
Sophie shook her head.
Celeste answered too quickly.
“She misunderstood.”
Ethan carried Sophie to the sofa and called his head of security.
“Lock the gates. Nobody leaves.”
Richard stepped forward.
“You can’t detain us.”
“I’m preserving my property while police come to investigate why my daughter was locked in luggage and why somebody forged my signature.”
Richard went still.
Then Sophie tugged his sleeve.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“Mr. Richard took the blue box out of Mom’s wall.”
Ethan looked at Richard.
“What blue box?”
May you like
Richard’s face went blank.
But Celeste whispered, “You told me she didn’t see that.”
