Page 47 of The Better Sister

“I don’t know the precise date, but it was nearing the end of the semester. My best estimate is that it was about a month before Adam was killed.”

“Did you tell anyone else about Adam’s intention to place his son at another school?”

“I did.”

“And who was that?”

“I told the defendant, Ethan Macintosh.”

A hum of whispers erupted from the trial gallery, but was quickly silenced by a bang of Judge Rivera’s gavel.

“You told him that his father was considering sending him to military school?”

“I did. I thought it might get him to see the seriousness of his situation. Especially since my impression was that his stepmother was enabling him by making excuses.”

Olivia objected, which only made me feel guiltier.

“And what did the defendant, Ethan Macintosh, say when you told him that his father was considering sending him away to military school?”

“He said, and I remember exactly, ‘He can’t do that to me. I’ll find a way to stop him.’”

Even then, Ethan’s head never turned.

Nicky and I walked with Olivia in silence from the courthouse, wearing the facial expressions we had practiced on Olivia’s counsel—concerned but confident, unfazed but with a touch of outrage. We didn’t actually speak to one another until we were back at Olivia’s suite at the Hyatt. Furnished with a conference table and whiteboard in addition to a living area and bedroom, it was obviously designed for lawyers trying cases in the nearby courthouse.

“Did you know about this military school thing?” Olivia asked. She was standing over Nicky and me, the two of us seated next to each other at the conference table.

“Absolutely not.” I grasped the edges of the table to keep my hands from shaking. “How are they allowed to spring this on us like that? Why didn’t you know about this?”

Olivia pursed her lips, clearly tempering her response. “Mrs. Carter was on the witness list, but she wouldn’t talk to me or my investigator. I think this is the reason they want you to testify. They’re going to call you to the stand and ask you about every single time Adam and Ethan had a conflict. They’re going to say that his motive to kill Adam was to keep him from sending him away.”

Olivia had tried to mitigate the damage on cross-examination, getting Margaret to admit that she didn’t take Ethan’s comment as a threat or else she would have reported it to someone. But I could see the way the jurors were looking at Ethan.

“I had no idea. And more importantly, I never would have allowed it.”

“Don’t try to play me like you played that headmaster.”

“Excuseme? I’m notplayinganyone.”

“I should have pushed you harder about this earlier, Chloe. To be honest, I think my judgment with you has been clouded from day one because of who you are and what you’ve done in your work. But no one’s this perfect. This isn’t about your perfect public image, okay? This is real life. And I can’t help Ethan if I’m getting surprises thrown at me in that courtroom.”

“I’m telling you, I had no idea Adam was thinking about military school. For all I know, that woman’s confused or lying.”

Olivia scoffed. “You saw her in there. She’s a total pro. The jury believed her.Ibelieve her. And, trust me, I’ll be talking to Ethan about this, too. I can’t protect him from things he doesn’t tell me about.”

“Well, maybe Adam cooled down and changed his mind, and Ethan wrote it off as a momentary outburst. He never said one word about it to me.”

“And that right there’s what I’m talking about,” Olivia said. “No family is asLeave It to Beaveras you and Ethan have made yourselves out to be. What else aren’t you telling me?”

I closed my eyes. Where would I even begin? I dropped my face into my hands. I just wanted Ethan to come home. I had wanted to believe that this trial would finally be the end of the nightmare. I didn’t know how I was going to go on if this jury didn’t make things right. When I finally heard another voice, it was Nicky’s.

“You fed me the same story,” she said quietly. I dropped my hands and saw her eyes boring into me. “You and Adam both. You kept telling me how happy Ethan was. How well he was doing. You made it sound like I would be ruining everything if I showed up. Like I was a virus that was going to infect the perfect little family bubble.”

They both wanted an explanation I couldn’t give them.

Olivia wasn’t letting up. “If the headmaster at the school knew this, we have no idea what others might say. Ethan could have spoken to other kids. Adam might have confided in friends. He could have called military schools, looking for openings. I’ve been talking up Adam’s importance and closeness to Ethan, and this undermines that. Just how bad were the tensions between them?”

I didn’t know what to believe anymore. Adam had apparently told Margaret Carter that he didn’t recognize his son anymore, but that is how I had felt about my husband for the past year. He was a completely different person when he was angry.

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