Ethan Edwards & Noah Rogers ~ Family Affairs. By Carter P, Monacur

Chapter ~ 14# ~ Mistake

Noah ~ POV

After arriving home, I locked myself in my room. I was so pissed at dad; I get he just wanted me to be safe. But what the hell; mom and him were fighting downstairs now. I can hear them arguing through the walls. Mom texted me earlier saying it was ok for me to hang out with Ethan. But I guess dad had other ideas; he tried making excuses during the car ride. How he said he was looking out for me I didn't pay attention. Right now, I was sitting at my computer looking over what I could find on Mr. Davis, or Theo I guess. I mostly found old photos of him working in the cyber crimes division of the New York Police Department.

I managed to do a little digging into Deputy Ben; turns out he transferred out here a few years before he met his current wife. Most people don't think about what they post on their social media so finding and learning about them is easy. I saw Theo's old wife; her posts spanned a few years before suddenly stopping about three months ago. The posts leading up to the end were about dealing with a divorce. Some evidence was posted by her followers; most of them were text receipts from her to her husband. As I was reading through them, I couldn't help but notice the texts themselves seemed a little off.

I think it was the wording that threw me off in the beginning. It seemed way too robotic and professional; like there were no shorthand words or emojis. I mean, text receipts can be forged; or edited so this being fake is possible. I looked through the rest of the posts and some pictures. One showed a close-up bruise on the upper part of an arm. That was all the picture showed; there wasn't a face or anything to identify the person in question. The background was blurred out too; the best guest was inside a dirty room. Looking at everything, I couldn't help but feel this was only surface level. Though the following picture I came across threw me for a loop. It was a picture of Nathaniel, bruised; he looked down with the camera flash highlighting large bruises along his body.

I closed the picture as it twisted my stomach looking at it. This wasn't making sense; I kept trying to think about what could happen. Until I got a phone call from Ethan. I answered it, hoping he might have some answers to clarify this mess.

"Hey, Ethan..." I began to say but soon got interrupted by him.

"Noah, we were wrong... Mr. Davis... Ben and, and...." He began rambling on.

"Hey... hey, breathe," I said over the phone, trying to calm him.

I could hear his fast panting breath calm as it slowed down.

"I just ran into Deputy Ben again... he broke into the motel room before that woman came back." I went silent as I listened to Ethan.

"Noah... I don't know what's going on. But that woman, she wasn't right in the head. I swear she had this feeling around her like she saw everything as a game." Ethan explained as I transferred him to my headphones.

"Ethan, did you get her name?" I asked as I began doing a quick search.

"I think Ben called her Megan.... Why do you ask?" He asked as I did a quick search.

Social Media only shows one side of something. They don't show everything directly. After a quick search, I found Megan on a small social news article. It said that a police officer was fired for misusing city resources. I double-checked and noticed this happened a month before the posts about Theo's abuse stopped cold; not even her friends posted about it anymore.

"Hey, Ethan, listen to this... I looked into Mr. Davis's life before he and his son moved here... Up until they disappeared, the wife... Megan kept updating her social media regularly. But then it suddenly stops. About a month later, she got fired. Is it just me, or does that sound like..." I began to explain, and Ethan picked up where I was going.