Chapter 6 - BREAKING POINT
The pressure on the Ashford empire began to crush them from the inside out. With both Helena and Julian facing multiple felony counts, the board of directors at Ashford International panicked. The company’s stock price plummeted by fifteen percent in forty-eight hours, wiping out hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate valuation.
Ethan was caught in the eye of the hurricane. As the only family member not facing criminal indictment, he was forced to take over as interim CEO to stabilize the company, all while spending his nights cooperating with the District Attorney's office against his own mother and brother.
One evening, after Lily had gone to sleep, my phone rang. It was an unknown number, but something told me to answer it.
“Claire... please don't hang up,” Ethan’s voice sounded entirely hollowed out, thin and reedy with exhaustion.
I paused, holding the phone tightly against my ear. “Ethan, you shouldn't be calling me. The restraining order—”
“The restraining order allows contact regarding logistics, and I... I just need to know if you're both safe,” he interrupted, his voice cracking. “I’m at the mansion right now, Claire. It’s completely empty. The staff all quit. My mother is out on a ten-million-dollar bail, staying at a hotel in LA because she can’t stand the shame of being seen here. Julian’s bail was denied. He’s in a holding cell at the county jail.”
I sat down on the kitchen stool, staring out the window at the city lights. “You brought this on yourselves, Ethan.”
“I know,” he whispered. “I know we did. I’m sitting in Lily’s playroom right now, looking at her drawings on the wall. I can’t sleep, Claire. Every time I close my eyes, I see the look on your face when I handed you that envelope. I see the absolute terror in your eyes, and I realize that the monster in the room wasn’t my mother. It was me, because I didn't hold you. I didn't protect you.”
A heavy sob broke through the line, raw and unedited. Ethan had always been a man of immense control, raised to never show weakness, never cry, never break. Hearing him fall apart so completely was jarring.
“I resigned from the board of directors tonight,” he said after a long moment, trying to catch his breath. “I appointed an independent trustee to manage the company. I don't want the inheritance anymore, Claire. I don't want the mansion. I don't want the Ashford name. It’s all tainted. It’s all poison.”
“What are you going to do, Ethan?” I asked, surprised by the sudden surge of pity I felt for him. It wasn't love—not anymore—but it was human empathy.
“I’m going to plead guilty to corporate negligence,” he said quietly. “Because I signed the authorization forms for the DNA test request without verifying the protocols. I allowed the fraud to happen under my watch. I’m going to make sure my mother and brother go to prison, and then I’m going to disappear. I’m going to sell everything I own personally and put it into an independent trust for Lily that none of my family can ever touch.”
He paused, a long, heavy silence stretching between us over the airwaves.
“I don't expect you to take me back, Claire. I know I destroyed the bridge between us. But I need you to know that I am going to spend the rest of my life trying to become a man who would have been worthy of your trust. Even if I have to do it from afar.”
“Thank you for telling me, Ethan,” I said softly.
“Can I... can I see Lily? Just once? Before the trial begins? I’ll bring a social worker, a supervisor, anyone you want. I just need to tell her I love her, so she doesn't think her daddy abandoned her.”
I looked over at the closed door of Lily's bedroom. I thought about her crying for him three nights ago, holding her little rabbit toy.
May you like
“Yes,” I said, blinking away a stray tear. “You can see her. Next Saturday at the park near my apartment. Under supervision.”
“Thank you, Claire,” he whispered. “Thank you.”
