Going home pretending normal
I came back at the usual time. Ethan was in the kitchen, smiling, light, thirty years younger than me and apparently in love.
“How was my little wife’s day?” he kissed me on the cheek.
For the first time, his contact caused me a chill. I told her I was tired. He, helpful as always, offered to prepare my drink a little earlier that night. I smiled and accepted.
For the next few days I acted as if nothing had changed, but I never had any drink again. He kept an identical bottle of water by the bed and, when he left the room, he would empty the glass into a hidden container and fill it.ad
The lawyer, the will and the uncomfortable questions
I called Mr. Harris, my trusted lawyer, who knew my estate since the time of my first husband. His first question was direct:
“Lilian, does Ethan have access to his accounts?”
Only to a common account, for household expenses. I had no power of attorney. But when he asked me if I was listed in the will, I kept silent. A year earlier I had included it. He had never asked me directly. Or so I believed, until I remembered that conversation on the terrace, when he told me that, if anything happened to me, my family I’d probably kick him out of the house where we had built so many memories. At that moment, I found it vulnerable. Now it sounded different. Very different.
The lawyer advised me not to confront him and immediately modify the documents that were in my right to change. I did that way.
Search my own home
I didn’t check his phone or his computer. I searched my own home. On the desk he almost did not use, copies of old medical analyses and a folder with the documents of the house of Malibu were missing. The originals were still in the safe, but someone had photocopied them.ad
That same night, Ethan brought the old glass and stood at the door, waiting. For the first time I noticed that this was not taken care of. It was control. I faked two sips. He insisted:
“Lilian, you know I don’t like it when you leave it for later.
His smile was still intact, but his eyes had changed.
