Chapter 5 - The Folder
Elena did not pack like a woman having a tantrum.
She packed like a nurse.
Like a mother.
Like someone who had been preparing without admitting it to herself.
Leo’s clothes. His inhaler. His allergy medication. Prescription copies. His stuffed fox. His birth certificate. Her passport. His passport. Medical records from the hospital. Photos of the food table. Screenshots of Patricia’s past messages calling his allergy “overdramatic.” The notarized travel consent Nathan had signed three months earlier because he wanted Elena to take Leo to Toronto to visit her mother while he went fishing with his brothers.
Nathan never read paperwork.
He signed whatever made his life easier.
At the bottom of the suitcase, Elena placed the folder he always mocked.
Then she booked two one-way tickets to Toronto.
Downstairs, Nathan was still arguing with his family about optics. She heard him say, “She’ll calm down.” She heard Patricia say, “She has to learn she can’t control everyone.” She heard Brooke mutter, “Poor Nathan.”
Elena zipped the suitcase.
Leo sat on the bed, sleepy and pale.
“Are we going home?” he whispered.
Elena looked around the guest room. The lake house had never felt like home. Their house in Illinois no longer did either.
“We’re going somewhere safe,” she said.
At midnight, she carried Leo to the car. Nathan saw the suitcase and frowned.
“Where are you going?”
“You told me to pack my bags.”
“Elena, don’t be dramatic.”
She secured Leo in his car seat. “You should have thought of that before you made me choose between your pride and our son’s life.”
Nathan stepped closer. “You’re not taking him anywhere.”
Elena looked at him through the open car door.
May you like
“I already have permission.”
Then she drove away.
