Claire did not move for several seconds after Daniel’s voice disappeared beneath her balcony.
The ocean breathed in the dark beyond the hotel, black and endless, folding itself over and over under the moon. Somewhere below, Madison laughed again, light and spoiled and alive in a way Claire had forgotten people could be. Then a sliding door shut. Silence returned.
Claire stood barefoot on the cold balcony tile with her phone clenched in her hand.
She had recorded everything.
Not because she had planned to. Her fingers had moved on their own, opening the camera, pressing the red circle, capturing his voice as though proof could stop the world from tilting.
Inside the room, Ethan slept curled around his backpack. His cheeks were still damp. He looked smaller than nine, swallowed by the white sheets and the shadow of the suitcase Claire had not unpacked.
She sat on the edge of the bed and played the recording at the lowest volume.
“Madison, I’m not paying eighteen thousand dollars for a bracelet…”
The phone shook in her hand.
Ethan stirred.
Claire killed the sound instantly, but his eyes opened. For a moment, he stared at her like he was waking into the middle of a nightmare he had already lived.
“You heard him too,” he whispered.
Claire could not lie. Not anymore.
“Yes.”
Ethan pushed himself up slowly. “So he’s alive.”
Claire looked toward the balcony door. She could still feel the shape of Daniel’s voice in the air.
“I think so.”
Ethan’s mouth trembled, but no tears came. He had cried himself empty. “Then why didn’t he come home?”
What happened next changed everything… FULL STORY on the next page.
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