“Should I come over?” Willow asked uncertainly.
“No,” Antonio answered, before Ethan could. “You stay home, we’re going to clear out of here. Does your mom know about this?”
“N-no. And I would like to keep it that way. Not a hair on his head, Dad.”
“I got it, Willow.” He looked at Ethan a little more harshly.
“Thanks,” Ethan murmured, before ending the call.
Thanks seemed a little insufficient, but what else could he say?
Lifting one bushy eyebrow, the older man said, “She just saved your ass.”
“Not for the first time,” Ethan muttered.
Relief washed over him as the man next to Alison’s chair began untying her while another untied Amanda. Antonio moved so that he was standing in front of Amanda, his figure imposing as he ripped the tape off her mouth.
“I expect that all of you are smart enough not to say anything about this little meeting?”
Amanda nodded vigorously, scrubbing her wet cheeks with the heels of her hands.
Once freed from the restraints, Alison flung herself at him, crying, “Daddy!”
Ethan squeezed her as tightly as he could without hurting her, closing his eyes as she buried her face in the crook of his neck. “I’m so sorry, baby. I’m so sorry.”
He just kept murmuring it, over and over, as he rocked back and forth with her.
Ethan expected Antonio to have something more to say to him, perhaps along the lines of, “If you hurt my daughter, I’m going to empty a clip into your face” but instead, the man simply rounded up his minions and left as suddenly as he had appeared.
Before they even made it to their cars, which he now realized were parked on the street (something he should have noticed, but he’d been too busy thinking about the phone call to Willow), Amanda was flying past him and up the stairs.
He tried to reassure Alison, to convince her it had only been a game that they would never play again, but he couldn’t get past the fear he had felt moments earlier himself, so he wasn’t sure how he could expect her to.
When she finally calmed down a little, he asked if they could go upstairs to check on Mommy.
Upon entering their bedroom, he was hit with relief at the sight of his two sons, safe and seemingly unaware that there had been any danger.
Amanda had a suitcase thrown open and was shoving clothing into every crevice.
“Amanda…”
“Don’t,” she said, shaking her head, not looking at him.
Alison was holding onto his hand, but he loosened her grip and bent down. “Can you take your brothers into the other room to play for a few minutes?”
Ever the dutiful sister, she nodded her head and wrangled Jackson into the other room. Ethan picked up Caleb and took him in, placing him on his play mat and closing the door behind him so no one escaped.
With no small amount of dread, he went back to the bedroom to face Amanda.
“I honestly don’t want to talk to you right now,” she stated.
“I know that what you heard down there…was—”
“Was it true?” she interrupted, still not looking at him.
He paused for a few seconds. “It’s complicated.”
“It’s not complicated,” she said, looking up at him sharply before looking away again. “It’s the easiest fucking thing in the world—did you rape a girl? Most people can pretty easily answer this question without having to think about it.”