Chapter 8
Ethan’s bedroom door was half open.
Amanda saw the damage before stepping inside.
Drawers pulled out.
Stuffed animals shoved into a laundry basket.
His dinosaur blanket folded and placed by the door, like someone had been preparing to remove it.
A small pink baby blanket lay on his bed.
Not Ethan’s.
Chloe’s.
Amanda stood still.
Ethan saw it too.
His little body stiffened.
“They said Chloe needed my room.”
Amanda closed her eyes for one second.
When she opened them, Richard was behind her in the hallway.
Vivian stood near the stairs with the baby.
Brooke hovered several feet back.
Amanda turned.
“You moved my son’s things.”
Richard said, “We were reorganizing.”
“His bed?”
“Chloe needs a nursery.”
“Chloe has a mother.”
Brooke flinched.
Richard’s face hardened.
“You cannot say that.”
Amanda’s laugh was quiet and humorless.
“I cannot?”
Ethan began crying again, silently this time.
That hurt worse than sobbing.
He had run out of sound.
Amanda stepped into the room and placed him gently on the bed, moving the pink blanket aside without throwing it.
Chloe had done nothing wrong.
Amanda would not make even an object belonging to that baby part of the violence.
She sat beside Ethan and held his hands.
“This is your room,” she said.
He looked at Richard.
“Daddy said no.”
Amanda looked at Richard too.
“Daddy was wrong.”
Richard’s phone buzzed again.
Then Vivian’s.
Vivian looked down and gasped softly.
“What did you do?”
Amanda stood.
“I documented what was already happening.”
Richard’s eyes narrowed.
“You sent footage?”
Amanda did not answer.
The prompt of her silence was worse.
She did not need to reveal documents.
She did not need to explain legal structures.
She only needed him to understand that the room was no longer private.
May you like
And he did.
Read the full story 👉 Amanda found Chloe’s blanket in Ethan’s room and realized Richard had already begun erasing their son from his own home.
