Chapter 9 - THE MESSAGE ETHAN DELETED
Ethan deleted one text thread with Dorothy after the incident.
Not expertly.
Not criminal-mastermind behavior.
Panic.
The phone backup preserved it.
His lawyer disclosed it during discovery after forensic collection.
The thread began the week before the wedding.
DOROTHY:
I cannot survive another interruption.
ETHAN:
Nothing is going to happen.
DOROTHY:
You cannot know that. She’s almost 35 weeks.
ETHAN:
If Bella needs hospital we go to hospital.
DOROTHY:
After eighteen minutes?
ETHAN:
Mom.
DOROTHY:
I am asking a question.
ETHAN:
Actual emergency, immediately. Braxton Hicks, she can sit quietly.
DOROTHY:
And Massimo?
ETHAN:
Don’t involve him unless needed.
DOROTHY:
He turns everything into a crisis.
ETHAN:
That’s why I said don’t involve him.
There.
Then two days later.
DOROTHY:
She told me if the baby comes during the wedding she is leaving.
ETHAN:
Obviously.
DOROTHY:
You say that so casually.
ETHAN:
Because birth is not optional.
DOROTHY:
Neither is this wedding.
Ethan did not answer.
Then morning of.
DOROTHY:
Remember what you promised.
ETHAN:
May you like
18 minutes. I remember.
That was Chapter Ten waiting to happen.
