He Didn’t See Our Son Suffocate, He Saw Her Concert Tickets Chapter 03

He Didn’t See Our Son Suffocate, He Saw Her Concert Tickets Chapter 03

The blood in my veins turned to ice.

Sure enough, there it was — Vivian’s name, printed in black and white on the approval letter in Kevin’s hand.

The clerk slid my results across the counter. “Not approved.” Again.

It was only then that Kevin pieced together what had happened. He asked if I was okay. I shook my head. I didn’t even have the energy to say thank you.

That evening, Ethan came home to the pile of immigration applications stacked on the table. He took one look and his expression said it all. “So you know.”

Just like that. No apology. No guilt.

He walked over, his voice softening. “Vivian’s wanted to live in that country since she was a kid. I pulled some strings with a friend to get her through. It used your slot.”

My hands tightened against the table.

Since he’d made the call to move the company overseas, I’d submitted our paperwork more than thirty times. Rejected every single time. Revise, rewrite, resubmit — I practically had those fifty-plus pages memorized.

And in the end, none of it mattered at all.

Ethan rested his hands on my shoulders, the way you’d soothe a child throwing a tantrum. “We’ll get you and the boy over there later. There’s no rush.” He paused. “Besides, you’re doing great raising him on your own. You’re getting better at it every day.”

I almost laughed out loud. “Is he my son alone? Doesn’t he have a father?”

“Fiona.” He cut me off, impatient. “Are you going to keep going until you wake him up?”

He took a breath, as if he were calmly laying out the facts. “Vivian’s still young. There are opportunities over there. She could land a solid job.”

“You’re a housewife now. You don’t have to do anything. Does it really matter where you’re sitting while you do nothing?”

I stared at him. I could barely process what I was hearing. It was like he was one word away from calling me a waste of space.

I used to have a career. A good one. A respected one. He’d coaxed me into walking away from it. “Why kill yourself working when I can support you? Once we have kids, you can just stay home with them, go shopping whenever you feel like it, and be right there when I walk through the door. Sounds perfect, right?”

He clipped my wings with his own two hands. Then he turned around and blamed me for not being able to fly. Called me broken.

I smiled.

“Fine. Do whatever you want.”

A flicker of surprise crossed Ethan’s face. I don’t think he expected me to fold that easily. “Not gonna fight this time?”

I tossed the applications into the trash, my voice eerily level. “No. The boy and I aren’t in any rush.”

Not in a rush — because we weren’t going to follow him anymore.

A smile finally broke across Ethan’s face, relief written all over it. He stroked my cheek, then gazed tenderly at the baby in the crib. “You and the boy — you’ll always be the most important people in my life. I’m glad you understand.”

Then he picked up his phone and booked a restaurant. To celebrate Vivian’s immigration approval.

I sat there, watching his eager back as he walked out the door.

The divorce papers were already on the coffee table.

I signed my name. Then I reached over and stroked my son’s chubby little cheek. “Mommy’s gonna take you somewhere new to live. Okay?”

He didn’t understand a word of it. He just stared up at me and giggled.

The next evening, as I was holding my son and getting ready to head to the airport, Ethan burst through the door.

He slapped me so hard across the face my ears rang. His face was twisted with fury.

“Fiona, you’re beyond cruel! You lured Vivian out to the middle of nowhere — she was almost assaulted!”