Ethan forced himself to look back up. His father was still staring at him, jaw set, mouth twisted in a grimace.
It was clear he was still expecting an explanation for this, and Ethan had none to give him.
There was nothing for it at this point – he would have to suck it up and take responsibility for his mistakes, even if they weren’t actually his mistakes at all.
“I understand,” Ethan muttered, trying his best to sound professional. “My conduct has been unacceptable.”
His father nodded, obviously still deeply unhappy, but mollified enough to see that Ethan was at least contrite about it. As long as Ethan wasn’t arguing with him, he could quickly move on to the task of fixing the mess that Ethan had created.
That theghosthad created.
“Well, then,” his father said. “I’m going to go talk to Swynford, see if I can spin this as a technical glitch of some kind.Youare going to go somewhere else and get your head on straight. And if you can’t, well…”
He left the words hanging, but his meaning was clear as crystal.
“Understood,” Ethan said, lowering his head.
“Good.”
With that, his father turned his enormous leather chair around to face the window, clearly signaling an end to their meeting, and, possibly, the fact that he truly didn’t want to be looking at Ethan right now.
Ethan stood mutely in the middle of the room for a moment, before turning smartly on his heel and heading for the door.
Really, he couldn’t blame his father for his anger. He’d always made his expectations completely clear. Ethan and his brothers were expected to succeed – or else.
His pegasus tossed its head as he opened the door to his father’s office, emerging into the bustling corridor.
You are unbelievable. You let a delusion ruin our career.
Ethan snarled at it, even as he tried to keep his face inscrutable to the people swirling around him.You know full well that it’snota delusion.
The pegasus rolled its eyes, though Ethan detected a slight tremble in its voice.Ghosts are not real.
You just keep telling yourself that.
He knew that ghosts were one of the few things that the pegasus was actually scared of – why, he wasn’t sure – and so he didn’t push it too hard. His pegasus had an attitude problem, but in this case it was mostly bluster, so he let it go. He had far bigger problems to deal with.
Like the fact that he was clearly providing an obstacle to his colleagues, loitering in the middle of the corridor as he was. He was starting to garner a few strange looks, and the last thing he needed right now was to give anyone any more ammunition to use against him – and so he strode back toward his office, hoping that he was projectingconfident go-getterrather thanconference call disaster area.
It was with a near-inaudible sigh of relief that he finally stepped into his office and closed the door behind him, thesoundproofed walls cocooning him in silence. Ethan had never felt out of place or overwhelmed at work before – he was practically raised in this building, tagging dutifully after his father on evenings and weekends – but he had to admit, if only to himself, that he was feeling a bit rattled.
Things had been absolutely fine a couple of months ago. His career was exactly on track to where he’d had planned.
But now…?
Ethan flopped down in his chair with a sigh, turning around so that he could stare out of the floor-to-ceiling windows. The view from up here was spectacular, and it had always made him feel like he was on top of the world, but now it just felt… precarious. Like he could topple and fall at any moment.
No.
Standing up, Ethan clenched his hands into fists.
He wasn’t about to let that happen.
He had no idea why thisghosthad attached itself to him, but it was clear it wasn’t going to go away of its own accord.
He’d have to do something about this, or else let the career he’d built to his father’s exacting standards go down the drain.
And I won’t let that happen!
