Chapter 12 - The Staged Fall
Ethan waited until after midnight.
He dismissed the remaining security guards and sent the household staff home.
Then he took Claire upstairs.
On the landing, a camera tripod stood facing the staircase.
Claire understood immediately.
He intended to create footage.
“You’re going to fall,” Ethan said.
“No.”
“You’ve been dizzy for weeks. Dr. Voss documented it.”
Claire looked toward the front door.
Too far.
Her body already ached from the earlier attack.
Ethan turned on the camera.
He handed her a glass of wine and ordered her to walk near the stairs.
Claire threw the glass at the wall.
It shattered.
Ethan lunged.
She struck him with the broken stem, cutting his palm.
He roared and drove her against the railing.
Claire fought back harder than she ever had.
She clawed his face.
Kicked his knee.
Tried to reach the bedroom where her phone was hidden.
Ethan caught her from behind and slammed her to the floor.
The impact knocked the air from her lungs.
He kicked her ribs.
Once.
Then again.
Claire curled around her abdomen.
He dragged her toward the staircase and wrapped both hands around her throat.
“You should have signed.”
Her vision darkened.
The last sound she heard was Ethan telling someone over the phone to prepare the emergency room story.
When Claire stopped moving, he arranged her body at the bottom of the stairs.
He placed the broken wine glass nearby.
He deleted the tripod recording and called Dr. Voss.
“She fell,” Ethan said.
Voss arrived before the ambulance.
He checked Claire’s pulse and told Ethan she was still alive.
“Then make sure the hospital believes the story.”
But Ethan had made one mistake.
Rosa had returned the independent camera to Claire after helping her install it.
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And its lens had captured the entire attack from the hallway.
👉 The truth was already uploading while Ethan carried Claire into the ambulance.
