Chapter 13 - The Child Who Wouldn't Sleep.
Ethan spent the first day of his leave doing something Richard never expected.
Nothing corporate.
He moved Noah out of the mansion.
Dr. Levin recommended a quieter environment while medical testing continued.
Rebecca recommended distance from compromised household systems.
Mara recommended a location known to as few people as possible.
Margaret offered her lake cottage near Lake Geneva.
Ethan refused because Richard knew it.
Anna suggested something simpler.
"My aunt has a small house in Wilmette."
Ethan looked at her.
"Would she allow a private security team to sit outside?"
Anna smiled tiredly.
"She would probably feed them."
Aunt Rose's house was a two-story brick home on a quiet residential street with a narrow porch and flower boxes sleeping through the winter.
It had no marble.
No staff corridors.
No board members.
No hidden rooms.
Ethan loved it immediately.
Rose Reed was sixty-eight, five feet two inches tall, and completely unimpressed by Ethan's wealth.
She opened the door, looked at his tuxedo trousers from the previous night, and said,
"You look terrible."
Ethan nodded.
"Thank you."
"Shoes off."
He obeyed.
Anna tried not to laugh.
For the first time since the gala, Noah spent an entire afternoon without an unexplained sleep episode.
He napped for forty minutes.
Woke hungry.
Ate normally.
Smiled at Rose's ceiling fan.
Then refused to sleep at bedtime.
Ethan became worried almost immediately.
Anna did not.
"This is normal."
"He has been awake three hours."
"He's six months old."
"Shouldn't he sleep?"
"Eventually."
Ethan stared at her.
"That is not comforting."
Anna smiled.
"It isn't supposed to be."
At ten thirty, Ethan paced the small guest room holding Noah against his shoulder.
The baby stared at him with bright, stubborn eyes.
"I negotiate billion-dollar contracts."
Noah blinked.
"You are not more difficult than a municipal bond committee."
Noah made a delighted sound.
Anna leaned against the doorway.
"He disagrees."
Ethan looked at her.
"You could help."
"You said you wanted to learn."
"I regret saying that."
She took pity on him after another ten minutes.
"Sit down."
Ethan sat in the rocking chair.
"Stop bouncing him."
"I'm barely moving."
"You're nervous."
"I'm not nervous."
Noah began fussing.
Anna raised one eyebrow.
"He votes yes."
Ethan exhaled.
He let his shoulders drop.
Noah settled gradually.
Within five minutes, the baby's eyes closed.
Ethan looked stunned.
"That's it?"
"Sometimes."
"What did I do?"
"Stopped trying to control the outcome."
The sentence landed harder than Anna intended.
She saw it on his face.
"I didn't mean—"
"You did."
Ethan looked down at his son.
"And you're right."
They sat quietly for a moment.
Then Anna's phone vibrated.
A message from Mara contained a request for clarification about her notebook.
One entry listed the words blue bottle under November twenty-third.
Mara wanted to know what it meant.
Anna frowned.
"I forgot about that."
Ethan looked up.
"What blue bottle?"
"Claire brought a small bottle into the nursery."
"Medicine?"
"I don't know."
"Where is it?"
Anna thought.
"She kept it in her evening bag."
"Did you ever see her use it?"
"Not directly."
Anna's expression shifted as memory returned.
"But I smelled lavender on Noah's pacifier once."
Ethan's face tightened.
"Could it have been soap?"
"Maybe."
They sent the information to Mara without speculation.
At eleven forty, Mara called.
"Investigators recovered a small blue bottle from Claire's bathroom cabinet."
Ethan stood slowly so he would not wake Noah.
"What is it?"
"They are testing it."
"Was it hidden?"
"Behind a false panel in a cosmetic case."
Anna looked at Ethan.
Mara continued.
"There is also residue on the cap consistent with contact from a silicone surface."
Ethan thought of the pacifier.
His voice hardened.
"Do they have the pacifier?"
"Yes."
"Then test it."
"They are."
Mara paused.
"There is something else."
"Of course there is."
"The bottle label was removed."
"Can they identify it?"
"Probably."
"When?"
"When they can."
Ethan hated the answer and respected it.
At midnight, Rebecca called with news from Vale Meridian.
Richard had spent his first afternoon as temporary chairman replacing Ethan's executive assistant, restricting Martin's access to several archives, and ordering a review of all Halston-related corporate records.
"He is looking for something," Rebecca said.
Ethan stared at the sleeping baby.
"The amendment."
"He doesn't know we found it."
"Then let's keep it that way."
Rebecca agreed.
"There is more."
"What?"
"Richard has scheduled a full-company town hall for tomorrow."
Ethan frowned.
"Why?"
"He says employees deserve stability."
"Translation?"
"He wants cameras recording him in your chair."
Ethan smiled faintly.
"Let him."
The next morning, Noah woke at six twenty and laughed when Rose sneezed.
The sound stopped Ethan in the kitchen.
It was the first full laugh he had heard from his son in weeks.
Anna heard it too.
Her eyes filled, but she smiled instead of crying.
"There you are."
Ethan looked at her.
"What?"
"That's the Noah I remember."
Dr. Levin arrived at eight to examine him.
The doctor was visibly encouraged.
"His sleep-wake pattern looks more typical."
"Because we're out of the house?"
"Maybe."
"Because Claire isn't here?"
"Maybe."
Ethan gave him a tired look.
"Doctors love that word."
"Because certainty is expensive."
Dr. Levin smiled slightly.
Then he became serious.
"The confirmatory lab found the same calming compound as the first screen."
Ethan's face changed.
"Enough to explain the episodes?"
"It could contribute."
"And the source?"
"Not established yet."
At nine twelve, Mara called again.
This time her voice was different.
"We have the pacifier result."
Ethan put her on speaker.
"Tell me."
"The residue on the pacifier matches the contents of the blue bottle recovered from Claire's cosmetic case."
Anna closed her eyes.
Ethan's voice went quiet.
"What was in the bottle?"
Mara named a commercially available calming product not approved for infant use in that manner.
Ethan did not care about the brand.
He cared that the same substance had been found in Noah's screening.
"Can they prove Claire applied it?"
"Not yet."
"But the bottle was hers."
"Recovered from her room."
"Hidden."
"Yes."
"And the pacifier had the same residue."
"Yes."
Anna looked at Noah in Rose's arms.
Her face hardened in a way Ethan had never seen.
"She made him sleepy so she could make him look sick."
Mara did not agree out loud.
She did not need to.
At ten, Claire's attorney announced she would hold a press conference outside the county courthouse.
At ten fifteen, law enforcement canceled it for her.
Claire Mercer had been asked to surrender for questioning on multiple charges connected to child endangerment, evidence tampering, and conspiracy.
The television showed reporters gathering anyway.
Ethan watched in silence.
Then Rebecca's phone rang.
She listened for thirty seconds.
Her expression darkened.
"Claire isn't surrendering."
Ethan looked at her.
"Where is she?"
May you like
Rebecca ended the call.
"No one knows."
