“He is going to hold that against you,” I said.

“Let him hold it,” Ethan said.

“He is my boss, not my family.”

He unlocked the screen again without taking a second breath and opened his recent call log.

He tapped his mother’s name and placed the phone back on the center of the wooden table.

Sylvia answered on the very first ring, her voice popping instantly through the speaker with breathless urgency.

“Ethan?” she said, her voice rapid and high-pitched.