Chapter 6 - Eyes Across the Street
The black sedan appeared the next morning.
It sat across from her apartment building for almost two hours.
When she went downstairs with Leo, it drove away.
The following afternoon, it returned.
Ethan noticed it first.
"Do you know that car?"
"No."
"Then don't walk over there."
She called Mr. Sterling.
He sent an investigator named Daniel Reyes.
Daniel was former law enforcement and spoke with the bored calm of someone who had seen far worse than wealthy people behaving badly.
He photographed the sedan.
Then he checked the plate.
"Private surveillance company."
Her stomach dropped.
"Mark?"
"Probably his legal team."
"Is that allowed?"
"In public spaces, sometimes."
Daniel looked toward her apartment.
"But intimidation is another matter."
She felt exposed.
Mark had taken the mansion.
Now he was trying to invade the only safe place she had left.
Daniel's investigation did not stop with the surveillance company.
He began digging into Chloe.
Within days, strange details appeared.
Three unpaid loans.
Two civil lawsuits.
A former landlord claiming property damage.
A luxury credit account more than sixty thousand dollars overdue.
Then came something more interesting.
Chloe had previously dated two wealthy married men.
Both relationships ended after she demanded money.
One man had paid her privately.
The other had sued.
Mr. Sterling placed the file on his desk.
"This changes things."
"Because she's after Mark's money?"
"Maybe."
"Maybe?"
"We need proof, not assumptions."
Daniel kept digging.
Meanwhile, Mark's visitation schedule became evidence against him.
The first Saturday, he arrived forty minutes late.
The second, he canceled because Chloe had a medical appointment.
The third, he never arrived.
She documented everything.
On the fourth Saturday, Mark appeared at exactly nine.
He looked exhausted.
Leo hesitated before reaching for him.
That hesitation wounded Mark more deeply than anything said in court.
"You taught him to be afraid of me."
She stared at him.
"No."
"Then why won't he come to me?"
"Because you keep disappearing."
Mark looked down.
He had no answer.
When he returned Leo three hours later, the baby was sleeping.
Mark lingered near the doorway.
"Are you happy?"
She frowned.
"What kind of question is that?"
"Without me."
She studied him.
The expensive coat.
The tired eyes.
The man who had once seemed so powerful.
"I'm learning to be."
Mark swallowed.
"Do you love Ethan?"
The question stunned her.
"You had me followed just to ask that?"
"I needed to know who's around my son."
"No."
She stepped closer.
"You needed to know whether I was moving on."
Mark did not deny it.
She took Leo.
"The answer is none of your business."
She closed the door.
Across the hallway, Ethan had heard enough to understand what was happening.
He said nothing.
But that night, he found an envelope pushed beneath her door.
Inside was a photograph of her and Ethan holding Leo.
May you like
Across the bottom, someone had written one sentence.
A judge will see exactly what kind of mother you are.
