Chapter 2
The room exploded into chaos.
Cameras flashed.
Guests murmured behind their hands.
Margaret’s face turned crimson with rage.
But I couldn’t look at her anymore.
I looked at the boy.
His eyes were red and swollen.
He was terrified.
And he looked so much like Ethan it hurt.
The same jawline.
The same blue eyes.
The same way his eyebrows furrowed when he was worried.
I set my bouquet on the nearest table.
The white roses felt heavy and meaningless now.
“What’s your name?” I asked softly.
The boy hesitated.
“Liam.”
“Liam,” I repeated. “I’m Claire. Can you take me to your mom?”
He nodded vigorously.
Ethan reached for my arm.
“Claire, wait—”
I pulled away.
“Your son says his mother is outside. I’m going to get her.”
I didn’t wait for a response.
I lifted my wedding dress and walked toward the doors.
Liam ran beside me.
His small hand found mine.
It was cold and clammy.
We stepped out of the ballroom into the hotel hallway.
The air felt cooler.
Quieter.
Liam pointed toward the main entrance.
“She’s by the doors. She said she was too tired to come inside.”
My heart sank.
We walked through the lobby.
People stared at me in my wedding dress.
I didn’t care.
Near the glass doors, a woman sat on a bench.
She was thin.
Too thin.
Her hair was dull and pulled back in a messy ponytail.
She wore a faded sweater and jeans.
When she saw us, she tried to stand.
Her legs wobbled.
“Liam,” she breathed.
“Mom!” He ran to her.
She wrapped her arms around him.
I stopped a few feet away.
She looked up at me.
Her eyes were sunken.
Tired.
But there was a flicker of something familiar in them.
“You must be Claire,” she said.
Her voice was raspy.
Weak.
“I’m Sarah.”
I nodded.
“The boy… Liam. He says Ethan is his father.”
Sarah’s eyes filled with tears.
She nodded.
“He is. I wouldn’t have brought him here if I had any other choice.”
She coughed into her hand.
A deep, rattling sound.
I sat down beside her.
“Are you okay?”
She gave a bitter laugh.
“Not really. I’m dying, Claire.”
The words hung in the air.
Heavy.
Final.
“Cancer,” she continued. “Stage four. The doctors say I have weeks. Maybe days.”
Liam squeezed his mother tighter.
“I don’t want you to die.”
Sarah kissed the top of his head.
“I know, baby. I know.”
She looked back at me.
“That’s why I came. I needed Liam to know his father. Before it’s too late.”
“But why now?” My voice shook. “On our wedding day?”
Sarah closed her eyes for a moment.
“Because Margaret told me Ethan was dead. For seven years, I believed him. I saw the obituary online. I grieved. I raised Liam alone. Then three weeks ago, I saw an engagement announcement in the Dallas society pages. There was his picture. Alive. Breathing. Marrying you.”
Anger flared in her eyes.
“I called Margaret. She threatened me. Said if I came near Ethan, she’d make sure I lost Liam. But I’m dying. What do I have left to lose?”
She reached into her purse and pulled out a folded piece of paper.
A DNA test.
“99.9% probability of paternity,” she said. “I had it done secretly. I needed to be sure before I destroyed your wedding.”
I stared at the paper.
My wedding was already destroyed.
But this… this was bigger than my broken heart.
This was a dying woman’s last wish.
A little boy who needed his father.
And a man who had been lied to for seven years.
“Come inside,” I heard myself say.
Sarah looked surprised.
“Are you sure?”
I stood up.
“Ethan deserves to hear the truth. From you. Not from his mother. Not from a seven-year-old boy.”
I helped Sarah to her feet.
She was light.
Fragile.
Liam took her other hand.
Together, the three of us walked back toward the ballroom.
The doors opened.
Every eye turned toward us.
Ethan stood frozen in the same spot.
Margaret was red-faced, screaming at security.
When she saw Sarah, she stopped.
Her face went white.
Sarah looked directly at Ethan.
“Hello, Ethan.”
May you like
Her voice cracked.
“It’s been a long time.”
