Nathan’s jaw shifted.
“And it’s after ten.”
“Yes.”
“Has he caused a disruption?”
Lauren hesitated.
“That isn’t the point.”
“I asked whether he caused a disruption.”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
Nathan looked toward the open doorway.
Several employees immediately disappeared from view.
“Who reported him?”
Lauren paused again.
“An employee noticed him while getting coffee.”
“And the complaint was?”
“That there was a child in the break room.”
“Doing what?”
Lauren’s lips pressed together.
“Reading.”
Ethan looked down at his book as if he had somehow read incorrectly.
Emma saw it and felt a fresh wave of anger beneath the humiliation.
Not anger at the company policy.
Not even at being caught.
Anger that her son was sitting there believing his quiet existence had somehow harmed grown adults.
Nathan seemed to see the same thing.
He closed the folder.
“Ethan, is it?”
The boy nodded.
Nathan softened his voice.
“Did your mother tell you to hide?”
Emma’s heart jumped.
“I told him to stay out of everyone’s way.”
Ethan answered anyway.
“Mom said I had to be really quiet so she wouldn’t lose her job.”
Lauren exhaled impatiently.
Nathan didn’t look at her.
“And what have you been doing all morning?”
Ethan lifted the planet book a little.
“Reading.
And drawing.”
“Anything else?”
The boy thought seriously.
“I went to the bathroom once.”
Someone outside the room made a sound that might have been a suppressed laugh, but it vanished instantly.
Nathan crouched just enough to see the drawings on the table without taking them.
One showed Saturn.
Another showed Chicago’s buildings beneath a huge blue sky.
The last was a simple picture of two stick figures holding hands beside an apartment building.
Above them was a lopsided sun.
Nathan pointed toward it.
“Who’s that?”
“Me and Mom.”
“I see.”
Ethan looked at Emma’s box again.
“Are they taking our apartment now?”
Emma’s face went white.
“Ethan.”
