Chapter 7 - THE HUSBAND WHO CAME HOME
Claire met Ethan in a warehouse.
Gabriel waited outside.
She insisted.
Inside, Ethan cried when he saw her.
Claire slapped him.
Then hugged him.
Then slapped him again.
“You let me bury you.”
“I know.”
“You let Emma grow up without you.”
“I know.”
“You let me think you were dead.”
“If Vivian knew I survived, she would have killed you both.”
Ethan explained.
The scaffolding collapse had been deliberate.
He survived with severe injuries.
Pierce arranged the false death because Vivian's people were watching the hospital.
Ethan then disappeared to collect evidence.
Pierce helped secretly.
Marcus learned only months later.
“Why didn't you come back?”
“Because every time I got close, someone followed me.”
Claire cried.
“You should have trusted me.”
“I was protecting you.”
“No.”
She stepped away.
“You were choosing for me.”
Gabriel heard that sentence through the listening device.
It struck him too.
Ethan looked toward the door.
“You're with him now?”
Claire froze.
“With who?”
“DeLuca.”
“That is none of your business.”
“I'm your husband.”
“You died.”
The words broke both of them.
Legally, emotionally, morally—nothing was simple.
Ethan had loved her.
Claire had mourned him.
Neither fact erased the other.
Then the warehouse doors exploded inward.
Vivian's men entered.
Gunfire erupted.
Gabriel abandoned his cane.
He walked.
Not gracefully.
Not quickly.
But he walked across the warehouse floor toward Claire.
He shot the lock on a side door.
Marcus covered them.
Ethan was hit.
They escaped.
In the car, Ethan bled against Claire's shoulder.
He pressed a key into Gabriel's hand.
“Pier 19.”
“What?”
“Everything is there.”
Ethan looked at Claire.
“I'm sorry.”
He died before the ambulance arrived.
This time Claire watched.
This time there was a body.
This time she got goodbye.
Three days later, she buried her husband for the second time.
Gabriel stood beside her using a cane.
Emma placed a yellow flower on the grave.
Then she took Gabriel's hand.
May you like
And Claire took the other.
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