“I need you to listen,” I said. “If you confront him now, he will turn it into a misunderstanding. He will smile, call me overwhelmed, and ask a doctor friend to escort me somewhere quiet. Everyone will believe him because believing him is easier than admitting they applauded a lie.”
Ethan’s expression tightened, not with anger, but with concentration. “Then we do this the right way.”
“There is no right way.”
“There is,” he said. “It begins with getting you safe.”
The word safe sounded foreign, luxurious. I looked past him toward the hallway where future waited wearing the ring.
A knock sounded at the door.
