My Family, My Friends, My Fiancé, All Hers Chapter 06
Ethan’s hand shook as he held the lease–termination agreement.
He called Claire’s company.
The receptionist’s voice was polite. “Ms. Claire Anderson completed her resignation a week ago.”
“Where did she go?”
“I’m sorry, but we can’t disclose that.”
The call ended.
Ethan drove to the police precinct.
The officer on duty pulled up the incident report from that day and looked at him.
“Are you the victim’s family member?”
“She’s my girlfriend.”
The officer pushed a copy of the statement across the desk.
“The victim, Claire Anderson, was dragged into an underground parking garage and assaulted by the suspect.
She had already lost a significant amount of blood by the time she reached the hospital.”
Ethan’s eyes moved line by line until they stopped on one sentence.
[Medical examination confirmed that the victim was approximately eight weeks pregnant. Trauma from the
assault caused a miscarriage.)
Eight weeks.
Two months earlier, he’d gotten drunk.
She had held him gently while he whispered nonsense against her ear.
He’d said he wanted a daughter, preferably one who looked like her.
Ethan clenched the paper until his knuckles turned white.
The officer continued. “The victim checked herself out after spending a week in the hospital.”
“No family members visited her during that time. She signed the surgical consent form herself.”
Ethan closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair. He didn’t move for a long time.
He remembered the call Claire had made that night.
Chloe had answered and told him Claire’s stomach hurt.
He’d accused her of making a scene and hung up.
That call had been her last cry for help.
Ryan and their parents arrived at the precinct too.
After reading the statement, Mom covered her mouth as tears flooded her eyes.
Dad gripped the arm of the chair, his lips trembling.
Ryan punched the wall and turned on Jason and Emily.
“You handed her over to that monster!”
Jason’s face went gray. His lips moved a few times, but he couldn’t say a word.
Emily crouched in the corner and began to vomit.
Megan shrank behind everyone else, her legs trembling.
No one dared look Ethan in the face.
Ethan stood and wrote down Claire’s discharge time and the hospital’s address from the report.
Then he drove there.
The nurse on duty still remembered her.
“That young woman? I remember her very clearly.”
“She stayed for a week, and no one came to see her. She had to hold on to the wall to make her way to every
injection.
“She still had a low–grade fever when she was discharged. I told her to rest a few more days.”
“She told me…”
The nurse paused and looked at Ethan.
“She said she didn’t have a home anymore. She had nowhere to rest.”
Ethan stood in front of the nurses‘ station without saying a word.
Under the fluorescent lights, he looked as if he’d aged ten years overnight.
His phone suddenly rang. It was Ryan.
“I checked the airline records. She flew to Seattle a week ago.”
“She blocked every number and deleted you from her contacts. She doesn’t want us to find her.”
