Chapter 6 - The Video Ethan Left Behind
The lights went out.
Not flickered.
Not dimmed.
Gone.
The room disappeared into darkness.
For a few seconds, nobody moved.
Then someone gasped.
My mother.
“Where is everyone?”
I heard chairs moving.
Footsteps.
Someone knocked something over.
My hand immediately went to my phone.
The screen lit up the room with a faint glow.
Everyone looked different in that small blue light.
My father looked terrified.
Melissa looked like she was about to collapse.
Daniel was already moving.
“Stay away from the windows.”
His voice was low.
Serious.
Not a suggestion.
An order.
I held my phone tighter.
“Why?”
He didn’t answer.
That was becoming a pattern.
Everyone knew something except me.
Everyone had pieces of the truth.
And somehow I was always the last person allowed to see the picture.
Then I heard it.
A sound from outside.
A car door closing.
My entire body froze.
Marcus looked toward the window.
For the first time since he arrived, his confidence disappeared.
“He’s here.”
I looked at him.
“Who?”
Marcus didn’t answer.
Daniel did.
“The person who has been trying to erase Ethan’s evidence.”
My heart started beating faster.
“You mean the person who killed him?”
Nobody corrected me.
That was the answer.
My father walked toward the hallway.
“We need to leave.”
I looked at him.
“Now you want to leave?”
He stopped.
The darkness hid his expression.
But his silence told me I had hurt him.
Good.
Because I was hurt too.
“You knew,” I whispered.
My father looked back.
“I knew Ethan was investigating something.”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“You knew he was in danger.”
His eyes closed.
“Yes.”
The word was quiet.
But it destroyed whatever was left.
I stepped back.
“Then why didn’t you save him?”
My father looked like he had no answer.
Because there wasn’t one.
There was no explanation that could bring Ethan back.
No excuse that could bring Lily and Noah home.
Daniel suddenly raised his hand.
Everyone stopped.
“Listen.”
We all went silent.
At first, I heard nothing.
Then…
A faint sound.
A buzzing noise.
Coming from somewhere inside the house.
Daniel turned toward the living room.
“What is that?”
Marcus immediately moved.
“The flash drive.”
Everyone looked at the table.
The flash drive was still there.
But beside it was something else.
A small device.
Black.
Almost invisible.
My stomach dropped.
“What is that?”
Daniel picked it up carefully.
“A tracker.”
The room went cold.
“Someone planted it?”
Daniel looked at me.
“Yes.”
“When?”
He didn’t answer.
But I already knew.
The answer was terrifying.
Someone had been inside my house.
Someone had been watching me.
Someone knew about Ethan’s letter.
My phone buzzed.
Everyone looked at me.
Unknown number.
A new message.
I opened it.
A photo.
My house.
Taken from outside.
A message underneath.
“You were never alone.”
I felt sick.
Marcus saw the screen.
His face changed.
“They know we found the drive.”
Daniel looked toward the front door.
“We need to move.”
This time, nobody argued.
We gathered everything we could.
The flash drive.
Ethan’s letter.
The photographs.
The documents.
Pieces of a puzzle that had already cost me everything.
As I grabbed Ethan’s letter from the table, something fell from inside the envelope.
A small piece of paper.
I hadn’t noticed it before.
My name was written on it.
Claire.
I unfolded it.
Only one sentence.
“If my father is with you, don’t trust him.”
My hands went cold.
I looked at my father.
He was standing near the door.
Waiting.
Watching me.
Daniel noticed my expression.
“What happened?”
I couldn’t speak.
I handed him the paper.
He read it.
Then looked at my father.
The silence became unbearable.
My father saw the paper.
His face changed.
“Claire…”
I stepped away.
“You knew.”
“No.”
“You knew Ethan suspected you.”
My father shook his head.
“You don’t understand.”
I laughed bitterly.
“That’s the problem, Dad.”
I pointed at the letter.
“I never understood anything because everyone kept deciding what I was allowed to know.”
A loud crash came from upstairs.
Everyone turned.
The house went silent again.
Someone was inside.
Not outside.
Inside.
Daniel immediately moved.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
I followed him.
“I’m done staying behind.”
He looked at me.
For a moment, he wanted to argue.
Then he stopped.
Because he knew I was right.
We moved upstairs slowly.
Every step felt louder than it should.
The hallway was dark.
The bedroom doors were closed.
Then we saw it.
The door to my office.
Open.
I stopped.
I always locked that door.
Always.
Daniel looked at me.
“Was it open before?”
I shook my head.
“No.”
He reached for the handle.
Then stopped.
There was something written on the wall beside the door.
A single word.
ETHAN.
My breathing stopped.
Inside the office, my computer was turned on.
The screen was black.
Waiting.
Daniel walked closer.
The monitor suddenly came alive.
A video file appeared.
No title.
No date.
Just one name.
CLAIRE.
My hands started shaking.
“Play it.”
Daniel looked at me.
“Are you sure?”
No.
I wasn’t.
But I had spent six months living without answers.
I couldn’t keep running.
I clicked the file.
The video started.
The image was dark.
A security camera.
Ethan appeared.
He was sitting in a car.
His face looked exhausted.
There was blood on his shirt.
My hand covered my mouth.
But he was alive.
This wasn’t a memory.
This was a message.
Ethan looked directly into the camera.
“Claire.”
Hearing his voice almost broke me.
I had dreamed about hearing him again.
But not like this.
Not like he was leaving me one last goodbye.
“If you’re watching this…”
He paused.
His eyes moved away from the camera.
Like he was checking if someone was listening.
“Then I failed.”
Tears filled my eyes.
“No.”
I whispered.
Ethan continued.
“I need you to understand something.”
He leaned closer.
“The accident was never about me.”
My heart stopped.
“It was about you.”
The video glitched.
Then Ethan said the words that made everyone in the room freeze.
“The person who caused this is someone you love.”
The screen went black.
Nobody spoke.
Then the computer restarted.
A new file appeared.
Created moments ago.
The name was:
PROOF.
I stared at it.
Because beneath the file name was something else.
May you like
A timestamp.
And the date was tomorrow.
