Chapter 6: The Night They Came for Ethan
I called Ms.
Parker from the hospital phone at three in the afternoon.
"I need an emergency protective order," I said.
"For Ethan."
"I've already started the paperwork," she said.
"I was going to call you in an hour."
"Harlan thinks Ryan will try to take him."
"Harlan is right." Her voice was steady, the way it always was when the situation was worst.
"Ryan's guardianship petition is still technically active.
It was blocked, not dismissed.
If he moves Ethan across a state line before the hearing, it becomes significantly more complicated to reverse."
"How long for the protective order?"
"Emergency filing — I can have it in front of a judge by five.
But Emily, it won't be granted instantly.
There's a review process."
"How long is the process?"
A pause.
"Twenty-four to forty-eight hours."
I closed my eyes.
"Where is Ethan right now?" she asked.
"Down the hall.
With the liaison officer."
"Keep him there.
Don't let him leave the floor without you or Harlan present.
I'll call you the moment the order is filed."
She hung up.
I pressed the call button for the nurse and asked her to send Ethan back to my room.
Then I sat up as straight as I could manage and waited.
He came in still holding half the puzzle — a corner piece in each hand, the way he carried things he wasn't finished with yet.
"Hey," he said.
"Hey." I patted the bed beside me.
"Come sit."
He climbed up carefully, avoiding the IV line, and settled against my side the way he used to when he was smaller — heavier than I remembered, but the same shape of him, the same warmth.
"Are we in trouble?" he asked.
"We're being careful," I said.
"There's a difference."
He thought about that.
"What's the difference?"
"Trouble means something bad is happening and you don't know it yet.
Careful means you know, and you're ready."
He turned the puzzle piece over in his fingers.
"Are you ready?"
"Getting there."
At six-fifteen, Ryan appeared at the end of the corridor.
He wasn't alone.
There was a woman with him — sharp suit, leather portfolio under her arm, the deliberate walk of someone who had been in hospitals before and found them inconvenient rather than frightening.
His attorney, I realized.
Not Croft.
Someone else.
A woman I didn't recognize.
Harlan stepped out of the alcove near the elevator where he had been for the past two hours.
"Mr.
Calloway."
Ryan stopped.
"I'm here to see my son."
"Visiting hours ended at six."
"I'm his father."
"You're also the subject of an active investigation.
I'd encourage you to speak with your attorney before you take another step down this hall."
The woman beside Ryan touched his arm.
"Ryan."
He shook her off.
"Ethan is my son.
I have every legal right—"
"You have a pending guardianship petition that has been contested and is awaiting hearing," Harlan said.
"Until that hearing, the current custody arrangement stands.
Emily is Ethan's primary parent.
She has not authorized this visit."
Ryan looked past Harlan, down the corridor, to the open door of my room.
Ethan was visible from where they stood.
He had gone very still.
"Ethan," Ryan called.
"Come here."
Ethan didn't move.
"Ethan." Sharper now.
I put my hand on Ethan's arm.
He leaned slightly into me.
Ryan took one step forward.
Harlan moved — not dramatically, just shifted his weight, placed himself squarely in the center of the corridor.
"Last warning, Mr.
Calloway."
Ryan's attorney said, very quietly, "We're leaving, Ryan.
Now."
Something shifted in Ryan's face.
The calculation again — the same thing I had seen when Ethan stepped between us.
He was measuring.
Deciding whether the move was worth the cost.
He decided it wasn't.
"This isn't over," he said.
"No," Harlan agreed.
"It isn't.
The hearing is in eleven days.
I'd spend that time with your attorney."
Ryan turned and walked back toward the elevator.
His attorney followed, her heels sharp on the linoleum.
The elevator doors closed.
Ethan exhaled against my shoulder.
"He's not going to stop," he said.
"No," I said.
"But neither are we."
My phone lit up on the bedside table.
Ms.
Parker.
I answered.
"The emergency protective order was granted," she said.
"Twenty minutes ago.
Ryan cannot approach Ethan outside of a supervised setting until after the hearing."
I let out a breath I had been holding for hours.
"There's something else," she said.
"Croft withdrew from Ryan's case this afternoon."
"His attorney quit?"
"Apparently Ryan failed to disclose certain facts during their initial consultation.
Croft doesn't take cases where the client has misled him." A pause.
"He'll find someone else.
But it costs him time.
And it costs him credibility with the court."
Ethan was watching my face.
I lowered the phone.
"We're okay," I told him.
"Tonight, we're okay."
He nodded.
Then he held up the puzzle piece he'd been carrying.
"I think this goes in the corner," he said.
"I think you're right."
May you like
He leaned over the tray table and pressed it into place.
It fit.
