Chapter 7 - Richard Looks at His Son
Richard finally looked at Ethan properly.
Not quickly.
Not from the corner of his eye.
Fully.
That almost made Ethan angrier.
Because the sight changed Richard’s face instantly.
A bruise near the cheek.
A split at the lip.
A torn school blazer.
A young man holding his side and standing only through will.
None of it had been hidden.
Richard had simply avoided seeing what responsibility would require.
Now the red-and-blue lights forced his eyes open.
“Ethan,” he whispered.
Ethan gave him nothing.
No comfort.
No forgiveness.
No invitation.
Richard took a step forward.
Victoria snapped, “Richard.”
He stopped.
Again.
Ethan’s face changed.
Not surprise.
Exhaustion.
The kind that comes when disappointment becomes too familiar to wound fresh.
Victoria noticed and smiled slightly, trying to recover cruelty.
“See? Even now, he knows who his father listens to.”
That sentence finally struck Richard too.
He flinched as if slapped.
The attorney lowered the disinheritance folder to his side.
Ethan looked at the folder.
Then at Richard.
“Were you going to sign?”
Richard’s mouth opened.
No answer.
The prompt would not reveal whether he signs.
So silence answered only the present.
Ethan nodded once.
Tiny.
Cold.
That hurt Richard more than accusation.
Victoria took advantage.
“He brought this on himself.”
Ethan raised the drive.
“Then you won’t mind seeing what survived.”
Victoria’s eyes widened grotesquely.
“No.”
There it was.
The refusal.
Too fast.
Too honest.
Richard heard it.
The attorney heard it.
The flashing lights outside swept across all four faces.
Ethan finally looked toward the glass doors.
The silhouettes remained outside.
Waiting.
He turned back to Victoria.
May you like
For the first time all night, she looked smaller than him.
Read Chapter 8 👉 Because Richard could not answer whether he would disinherit Ethan, but Victoria’s panic answered what she feared the drive contained.
