The bedroom handle turned while Ethan Thornton’s fingers were still wrapped weakly around my wrist.
‘Don’t trust Jason Thornton,’ he had whispered.
Then the door opened.
Jason stood there.
For one terrible second, I was certain he had seen Ethan’s eyes open.
But Ethan reacted before I did.
His grip vanished.
His eyelids lowered.
His face settled back into the same lifeless stillness everyone in the mansion had accepted for nine months.
Jason leaned against the doorframe.
‘Everything all right, Mrs.
Thornton?’
I forced myself to release the breath trapped in my chest.
‘Fine.’
His eyes moved to Ethan.
‘You look pale.’
‘It’s been a long day.’
‘Of course.’ He stepped into the room.
‘Marrying a stranger can be exhausting.
Especially one who isn’t much of a conversationalist.’
I wanted to tell him to leave.
Instead, I remembered the fear in Ethan’s eyes.
So I smiled faintly.
‘I was just talking to him.’
Jason laughed.
‘They say hearing can linger in patients like Ethan.
Personally, I think people say that because silence makes them uncomfortable.’
He walked toward the bed.
My whole body tightened.
Jason reached down and adjusted the edge of Ethan’s blanket with almost brotherly tenderness.
‘He was never good at listening when he was awake either.’
Ethan did not move.
Neither did I.
Jason looked at me again.
‘Get some sleep, Claire.
Tomorrow the lawyers will explain what you’ve actually married into.’
Then he left.
I waited until his footsteps disappeared.
‘Ethan?’
Nothing.
I leaned closer.
‘Ethan, he’s gone.’
His eyes opened a fraction.
‘Lock it.’
I crossed the room and turned the lock.
When I returned, he was struggling to keep his eyes open.
‘What did Jason do?’
His lips moved, but only air came out at first.
I poured water into a cup, dampened a cloth, and touched it carefully to his mouth.
After a moment he whispered, ‘How long?’
‘Nine months.’
His eyes closed.
The pain that crossed his face told me he had not known.
‘What do you remember?’
He breathed slowly.
‘Car.’
