SWNOVELS Every Little Breath: Now – Chapter 32
Ethan Noakes had always been the shy one in the family. His mother called him a quiet soul, while his outgoing father had cajoled him into various activities, all without success, eventually resigning himself to the fact that Ethan was a loner.
He was happiest when he had his nose buried in a book or computer game, had just a handful of friends, and only felt the faintest pang of envy when he saw his dad and Gareth heading off to football or for afternoons out bowling without him.
Although he didn’t want to join them, he adored his dad, watched him doing everything with his older brother Gareth, and just wished he had something in common with him too.
It was less than a year before Steve’s arrest that father and son finally bonded, and then that was snatched away from Ethan, his world imploding and he became even more withdrawn, unable to cope with the spiteful things that were said about his family.
Being in the courtroom, listening to Gareth’s ex-girlfriend giving her testimony, had been one of the hardest days of his life. The worst, though, had been when the jury had returned their verdict, sentencing Steve Noakes to life in prison. Ethan remembered sitting there with his mother and brother, Uncle Dennis and his sons, Kelvin and Rod in the row behind. Of course, Dennis hadn’t been a very good brother, as he had quickly poisoned Julie Noakes’s mind after Steve had been found guilty.
Everything had changed after the trial, Dennis worming his way further into Julie’s life, persuading her to move away and then to divorce Steve and marry him instead. Kelvin and Rod became Ethan’s stepbrothers as well as his cousins, much to his distress, and then Gareth had killed himself.
Things hit rock bottom for Ethan after that. Although he and Gareth had been so different growing up, Gareth more outgoing and popular, while Ethan shied away from any kind of attention, they had become closer since their dad’s imprisonment and both shared a mutual hatred for Kelvin.
Gareth got on well with Rod, but Ethan felt that both Dennis’s sons were bullies, though so different in their approach. Kelvin was brash and blustery, while Rod, although the quieter and more studious of the two, was definitely more manipulative. It was worse when Gareth was no longer there to stick up for him and Ethan had been beyond relieved when they finally moved out, even if it did leave him stuck in the hellhole that was Sizewell with just his mother and Dennis.
Dennis with his rules, Dennis who continually sniped, Dennis who had turned Ethan’s mother into his own personal maid. He was nothing like Steve and Ethan guessed that was perhaps because they were half-brothers. They had shared a mother, but had different dads.
Ethan hadn’t minded Dennis so much when his dad had been around, but now Steve was out of the picture, Dennis’s true personality had come out.
The accident that had killed him, when he had tripped and fallen down the stairs had been a relief. Was it bad to say that? Ethan would never admit that aloud to anyone, just as he knew he would never reveal that it wasn’t an accident.
Still, when the two detectives had tracked him down at work this afternoon and asked to speak with him, he had nearly shit himself.
They couldn’t find out the truth.
Not now things were finally going right and he had his mother back to himself. If she knew what had really happened that night, she may never be able to forgive him for the part he had played, and it would ruin everything.
The move back to Norwich had given him hope. It was the chance to start afresh and to finally have the opportunity to confront the past and everything that had happened, to put things right.
If the police were onto him, if they really did know what had happened, then it was going to ruin everything.