Chapter 34: A Visit to the hospital
Mara sat at the head chair in the conference room, her laptop open, but her focus was elsewhere, she tossed the pen in her hand.
Six hours. It had been six hours since Ethan left for Paris, and still, no word from him. No text, no call, nothing. Her phone sat silently on the table, its screen dark, taunting her.
Her mind raced with questions. Had he reached safely? Was everything okay? The thoughts swirled like a storm. She reached for her phone, her fingers brushing over the screen, hovering over Ethan’s number. She wanted to call him, to hear his voice, to reassure herself that he was fine. But something held her back pride, maybe, or the fear of seeming too clingy.
She sighed and slipped the phone back into her pocket, forcing herself to focus on the meeting. But it was hard. The voices around her blurred into a dull hum, the words slipping past her like water through a sieve.
She tried to concentrate, to follow the discussion, but her mind kept drifting back to Ethan. What if something had happened? What if he was in trouble? The worry gnawed at her, relentless.
"Mara, what do you think?"
The question snapped her back to the present. She looked up, startled, to find everyone at the table staring at her. Louisa, one of the senior partners, was glaring, her arms crossed, her expression one of thinly veiled impatience.
Mara’s cheeks flushed as she realized she had no idea what had just been said. Lucy was also present at the meeting as her suspicious of Mara only grew bigger. In the absence of Ethan and Steph, she should be the one handling the case, not Mara.
"I’m sorry, I’m lost," Mara said, forcing a polite smile. "Can you go over that again?"
Louisa let out an exasperated sigh, her lips curling into a smirk. "I don’t understand why Ethan would leave such an important case to you," she said, her tone dripping with disdain.
"You seem... completely lost."