Chapter 8 - THE DAY ETHAN READ THE RESULTS
The results arrived on a Thursday morning.
Lucas called me at nine fifteen.
“Claire.”
I closed my eyes.
“Tell me.”
“The test confirms Ethan is the biological father of both children.”
I sat down.
I had never doubted it.
But hearing the words made something inside me shift.
For ten years, I'd carried the truth alone.
Now it existed in an official document.
A fact nobody could erase.
Lucas continued.
“Ethan has been notified.”
I swallowed.
“How did he react?”
A pause.
“He cried.”
I closed my eyes.
I didn't know what to feel.
Later that afternoon, Ethan asked to meet me privately.
We chose a quiet café.
He arrived carrying a folder.
His eyes were red.
“Claire.”
“Ethan.”
He sat.
For several minutes, neither spoke.
Then he opened the folder.
Inside were photographs.
Our wedding.
Our first apartment.
A picture of me laughing beside a Christmas tree.
I stared.
“You kept these?”
He nodded.
“All of them.”
I looked down.
He continued.
“I thought you left because you didn't love me.”
My throat tightened.
“I thought you threw me away.”
He shook his head.
“I didn't.”
I wanted to believe him.
But ten years of pain couldn't disappear because of one conversation.
Ethan seemed to understand.
“I know I can't ask you to trust me immediately.”
I nodded.
He continued.
“But I want to know my children.”
I looked at him.
“Then you need to understand something.”
“Anything.”
“They don't owe you love because of a DNA test.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
“You don't get to buy their affection.”
“I won't.”
“And you don't get to rewrite the last ten years as though I wasn't there.”
His eyes filled.
“Claire, I would never.”
I held his gaze.
“Good.”
Then I asked the question I'd been afraid to ask.
“If you'd known I was pregnant, what would you have done?”
Ethan looked at me.
His voice broke.
“I would have come home.”
I stared.
He continued.
“I would have held your hand through every appointment. I would have been there when they were born. I would have learned how to change diapers and warm bottles and survive on no sleep.”
Tears filled my eyes.
He swallowed.
“And I would have spent every day trying to deserve them.”
I looked away.
Because for the first time, I wasn't angry about what Ethan had done.
May you like
I was grieving what we'd lost.
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