The Group Chat Without Me That Decided Everything Chapter 06

The Group Chat Without Me That Decided Everything Chapter 06

Over the next week, Ethan and my brothers searched the entire city in a blind panic.

They went to my old company and learned I was no longer employed there.

They went to the apartment I’d once rented, but someone else already lived there.

They even went all the way to my hometown out in the countryside. My father’s older brother

told them I hadn’t been back at all.

Quiet, long-suffering Claire Bennett, the woman they even saw as a little cowardly, had

vanished without a trace.

Late one night at a bar, seven or eight empty bottles lay in front of Ethan.

Nathan and Lucas sat across from him, their faces grim.

“Still nothing?”

Lucas gulped down a mouthful of his drink, his voice hoarse.

“We’ve checked everywhere we can. She deleted all her social accounts and canceled her credit

cards.”

Ethan turned a glass in his hand, his eyes empty.

“Before… Even when we fought, she’d wait in the convenience store downstairs for me to come

get her.”

“This time, she didn’t leave a single clue.”

Anna sat beside him and cautiously reached for his sleeve.

“Ethan, stop drinking. Maybe Claire just needs a little time away. She’ll come back once she’s cooled off.”

“Cooled off?”

He shook her off so hard that she nearly hit the corner of the table.

“She even withdrew from the family trust! You call that taking a little time away?”

Anna’s eyes reddened, and tears spilled down her cheeks.

Is this because of me? If I hadn’t insisted on Miami, she wouldn’t have gotten

upset…”

Before, Nathan and Lucas would have rushed to comfort her the moment she cried.

That night, neither of them moved.

Nathan tugged at his tie in frustration.

“Enough. What are you crying for? You know how stubborn Cee is.”

He closed his eyes, and an old memory suddenly came back.

It was before Anna came along.

One winter, I ran a high fever. Nathan ran over a mile through the snow with me on his back to

get me to the hospital, while Lucas ran beside us, crying and wrapping his down jacket around

Back then, they’d told me, “Don’t be scared, Cee. Your big brothers will always protect you.”

And afterward?

They gave all that protection to Anna.

“Nathan…”

Anna looked at him in disbelief, as if she couldn’t imagine him speaking to her that way.

Lucas simply stood up.

“I’m going out for a smoke.”

Without me there to act as a buffer, their endless tolerance for Anna seemed to be starting to

crack.

Ethan stared at the glass in his hand.

The glass reflected his haggard face,

He suddenly remembered how calm I’d been washing a glass in the kitchen the morning of the Miami trip.

That calm hadn’t meant I was giving in. It meant I was done.

“Claire…”

He buried his face in his hands, his shoulders beginning to shake.

But love that came too late was worthless.

Meanwhile, I sat in first class on a flight to Paris.

Watching the rising sun outside, ordered champagne.

“Cheers, Claire Bennett.”

I spoke softly to my reflection in the window.

From that day on, I didn’t have to guess what anyone wanted.

My future belonged to me alone.