Chapter 3

The next day, or what he thought was the next day, the world outside his pain sharpened.

Eleanor made her announcement.

He heard it on a small television someone had left on in the hallway, the sound drifting into his room.

"My son, Ethan Vance, has suffered a tragic accident," Eleanor' s voice, filled with practiced grief, echoed through the speakers. "It appears his reckless, degenerate lifestyle has finally caught up with him. We are heartbroken, but the Vance family will endure."

Disowned. Publicly.

The path for Liam and Izzy was now clear.

Reporters swarmed the hospital, their voices a low buzz outside his door.

"Fallen heir!"

"Vance scandal!"

Eleanor gave interviews, a grieving mother, strong and stoic.

It was a performance worthy of an award.

The stress, the horror of it all, finally pulled him under.

But not before he heard another sound, a raw cry of anguish from the hallway.

"Ethan! My boy! Ethan!"

His father, Marcus. His voice choked with panic and despair.

They wouldn't let him in.

Ethan' s last conscious thought was of his kind, gentle father, trapped on the other side of the door, his heart breaking.