Chapter 3
I walked out of Sarah’s room so fast that I nearly hit the wall.
Ethan stood when he saw me.
“Claire.”
I kept walking.
He followed.
“Claire, please.”
I stopped in the middle of the hallway.
People turned toward us.
I didn’t care.
“You knew you were still married.”
His face went still.
I had my answer.
“You knew.”
He lowered his voice.
“It was complicated.”
“No. Taxes are complicated. Traffic is complicated. Standing at an altar with one woman while you’re still married to another is a lie.”
“I was trying to fix it.”
“By making your seven-year-old son pretend you weren’t his father?”
His face drained.
Sarah had told the truth.
I saw it immediately.
Ethan looked toward Noah, who was sitting across the hall with a juice box a nurse had given him.
“Keep your voice down.”
That made me angrier.
“Now you care who hears?”
“Claire.”
“Did you ask Sarah to hide Noah until after our wedding?”
He rubbed his forehead.
“Yes.”
The word landed between us.
I almost wished he had lied again.
Almost.
“Why?”
“I was going to tell you.”
“When?”
“After the wedding.”
I stared at him.
“You were going to wait until I was legally and financially tied to you?”
“That’s not why.”
“Then why?”
He didn’t answer.
A familiar voice came from behind me.
“Because he needed your father’s money.”
My father stood at the end of the hallway.
David Harper was still wearing the dark suit he had worn to walk me down the aisle.
My mother was beside him.
Her eyes were swollen from crying.
Ethan looked stunned.
“David.”
My father walked toward him.
“Don’t call me that.”
“Sir, I can explain.”
“You’ve done enough explaining.”
Dad stopped beside me.
He looked at my dress.
Then at Ethan.
Then at Noah.
His jaw tightened.
“I spent two years believing you loved my daughter.”
“I do.”
My father stepped closer.
“Then why did your company request the final investment transfer three days before the wedding?”
Ethan went silent.
I turned toward Dad.
“What transfer?”
He looked at me.
“You didn’t know?”
“No.”
Ethan spoke quickly.
“It was business.”
Dad’s expression hardened.
“You told me Claire approved the timing.”
I stared at Ethan.
“What did you tell him?”
Ethan looked trapped.
“My company had a deadline.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“I told him you knew.”
“I didn’t.”
Dad reached inside his jacket, then stopped himself.
“There are documents at my office showing that Ethan’s company was expecting five million dollars from us after the marriage.”
My mother gasped softly.
I felt numb.
“Five million?”
Ethan reached for me.
I stepped away.
“It was an investment, not a gift.”
“Did you need me to marry you to get it?”
“No.”
My father answered for him.
“Yes.”
Ethan turned.
“That wasn’t the agreement.”
Dad laughed without humor.
“You spent six months telling me we were becoming family.”
“That’s not fair.”
“What isn’t fair is using my daughter as a bridge to my bank account.”
Noah looked at us.
“Why is everyone mad at Dad?”
The question silenced the hallway.
My mother walked over and crouched beside him.
“None of this is because of you, sweetheart.”
“Is Mom okay?”
“She’s resting.”
He looked at Ethan.
“Are you in trouble?”
Ethan closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Noah considered that.
“For lying?”
Nobody answered.
Noah nodded as though he had answered himself.
“Mom says lies get bigger when you feed them.”
I looked at Ethan.
“Your seven-year-old understands you better than you understand yourself.”
Before he could respond, Margaret marched into the hallway.
Two relatives followed her.
“What are all of you doing?”
Dad turned.
“Finding out how rotten your family is.”
Margaret stopped.
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me.”
She looked at Ethan.
“We need to leave.”
“No.”
Her eyebrows lifted.
“What?”
Ethan pointed toward Sarah’s room.
“My wife is in there.”
Margaret’s face tightened.
“Your former wife.”
“Apparently not.”
For the first time, Margaret seemed caught off guard.
“You signed the divorce papers.”
“I signed them. Sarah didn’t.”
“She did.”
“No, Mom.”
“She absolutely did.”
Sarah’s voice came from behind us.
A nurse was helping her stand at the doorway.
She looked weak.
But her eyes were sharp.
“No, I didn’t.”
Noah jumped up.
“Mom!”
The nurse stopped him from running into her.
“Easy, buddy.”
Margaret stared at Sarah as if she were an insect that refused to die.
“You should be in bed.”
Sarah smiled faintly.
“You’d like that.”
Ethan looked between them.
“Mom, you told me she signed.”
“She did.”
Sarah shook her head.
“You sent me papers. I refused.”
Margaret’s face remained calm.
“I have copies.”
“Copies of what?”
“Your signature.”
Sarah’s expression changed.
“What?”
Margaret looked toward Ethan.
“You were divorced years ago.”
Ethan frowned.
“Then why did the county clerk’s office tell my attorney six months ago they couldn’t find a final decree?”
My head snapped toward him.
“You checked?”
He looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
Six months.
Exactly when Sarah said he visited.
“You knew.”
“I knew there was a problem.”
“And you still planned a wedding.”
“I thought it could be fixed.”
My father muttered something under his breath.
Sarah stared at Margaret.
“You forged my name.”
Margaret looked offended.
“Be careful.”
Sarah laughed weakly.
“I was poor, not stupid.”
“No one forged anything.”
“Then show us.”
“I don’t carry eight-year-old legal documents in my purse.”
My mother spoke.
“Funny. You brought everything else to control this wedding.”
Margaret turned toward her.
“This is a family matter.”
Mom took my hand.
“My daughter was thirty seconds away from marrying into it. That makes it my matter.”
Sarah suddenly swayed.
The nurse grabbed her.
“That’s enough. Back to bed.”
Noah followed.
Before Sarah disappeared into the room, she looked at Ethan.
“There’s something you still haven’t told her.”
Ethan stiffened.
I stared at him.
“What now?”
Sarah shook her head.
“Not here.”
“Sarah.”
She looked exhausted.
“Ask him why he came back into Noah’s life last year.”
Ethan went pale again.
I was beginning to recognize the pattern.
Every time a truth got close, Ethan’s face confessed before his mouth did.
I turned toward him.
“Why did you?”
He said nothing.
Margaret interrupted.
“That is enough.”
“No, it isn’t.”
I stepped closer to Ethan.
“You abandoned your son for six years. Then suddenly started meeting him in secret. Why?”
He looked at Noah’s closed hospital-room door.
“I found out something.”
“What?”
“That he was mine.”
I stared at him.
“What are you talking about?”
Ethan swallowed.
“When Sarah was pregnant, Mom had a paternity test done after Noah was born.”
Sarah heard him from inside the room.
Her voice came through the doorway.
“No.”
Ethan looked toward her.
“That’s what I was told.”
Sarah appeared again.
The nurse looked ready to throw all of us out.
Sarah ignored her.
“There was never a test.”
Ethan stared.
Margaret’s posture changed.
Just slightly.
But I saw it.
So did Ethan.
He turned slowly toward his mother.
“You gave me a report.”
Sarah shook her head.
“I never agreed to a test.”
Margaret said, “You didn’t need to.”
Sarah’s eyes narrowed.
“What does that mean?”
Margaret took a breath.
“Noah was tested at the hospital.”
Sarah looked horrified.
“Without telling me?”
“You were barely conscious after delivery.”
Ethan’s voice was low.
“Mom.”
She turned.
“The report said you weren’t the father.”
Noah stood in the doorway now.
He had heard everything.
His face crumpled.
“I’m not?”
Ethan moved immediately.
“No. Noah, listen to me.”
The boy backed away.
“You said you were.”
“I am.”
“But she said—”
“She’s talking about an old test.”
Noah looked terrified.
Sarah reached for him.
“Come here.”
He went to his mother.
Ethan turned back to Margaret.
“Last year I did another test.”
Margaret’s mouth tightened.
I stared at him.
“And?”
Ethan looked toward Noah.
“He’s my son.”
Sarah closed her eyes.
Noah clung to her.
I asked the obvious question.
“Then what happened to the first test?”
Nobody spoke.
Margaret finally said, “Laboratories make mistakes.”
Ethan stared at her.
“You used that report to convince me Sarah cheated.”
“I showed you what I was given.”
“You used it to make me leave.”
“You chose to leave.”
That stopped him.
Margaret stepped closer.
“Don’t rewrite history because you suddenly want to look innocent.”
Ethan’s face hardened.
“You told me Sarah had been seeing someone.”
“And you believed me.”
“You had proof.”
“I had information.”
“You told me Noah wasn’t mine.”
“I told you what you needed to hear before you destroyed your life.”
The hallway fell silent.
Margaret realized what she had said.
Ethan stared at her.
“What I needed to hear?”
She recovered quickly.
“You were twenty-four years old. Sarah had no money. You were about to throw away every opportunity your father and I gave you.”
Sarah looked at her.
“So you decided my son didn’t deserve a father?”
Margaret’s voice sharpened.
“Your son had a mother.”
“And Ethan had a choice.”
“Yes.”
Sarah looked at him.
“And he chose you.”
Ethan flinched.
Margaret folded her arms.
“He made the correct decision.”
Noah started crying again.
I could not stand there anymore.
“Correct?”
Margaret looked at me.
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand perfectly.”
“No, Claire. You grew up with money. You don’t know what women like Sarah can do when they see a wealthy family.”
Sarah’s face went white with anger.
I stepped between them.
“Women like Sarah?”
Margaret realized too late that she had lost me completely.
I pointed toward the elevator.
“Leave.”
“This is not your hospital.”
“No, but Sarah asked to see me, not you.”
Margaret looked at Ethan.
“Are you going to allow her to speak to me that way?”
Ethan didn’t answer.
“Ethan.”
He looked at his mother.
“Did you fake that test?”
Margaret’s eyes narrowed.
“I protected you.”
“Did you fake it?”
“I protected this family.”
Ethan took a step backward.
It was the first time I saw something in his face that looked like genuine horror.
Margaret reached for his arm.
He moved away.
“Don’t.”
Her mouth opened.
A nurse stepped forward.
“You need to leave now.”
Margaret looked around and realized nobody was supporting her.
Not Ethan.
Not me.
Not my parents.
Not even the relatives she brought with her.
She lifted her chin.
“This conversation is not over.”
Sarah stared at her.
“For you, it should have been over eight years ago.”
Margaret walked toward the elevator.
Then Noah called after her.
“Grandma?”
She stopped.
He looked at her with tears on his face.
“Did you tell Dad I wasn’t his?”
Margaret’s face softened.
“Noah, adults make difficult decisions.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
She hesitated.
Noah looked at Ethan.
“Mom says not answering is sometimes an answer.”
Margaret stepped into the elevator.
The doors closed.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Then my father said quietly, “Claire, I’m taking you home.”
I shook my head.
“Not yet.”
“Sweetheart.”
“I need to know everything before I walk away.”
Ethan looked at me.
A tiny piece of hope appeared in his eyes.
I destroyed it immediately.
“I didn’t say I was staying.”
His face dropped.
“I said I want the truth.”
Sarah went back to bed.
Noah curled beside her.
Ethan and I sat in the waiting area.
My parents stayed nearby.
For the next hour, Ethan told me things he should have told me years earlier.
He met Sarah when they were twenty-two.
They married quickly.
Margaret hated her from the beginning.
When Noah was born, Margaret brought Ethan a test claiming he was not the father.
Ethan confronted Sarah.
Sarah denied cheating.
They fought.
Margaret encouraged Ethan to leave.
He did.
Then Sarah disappeared from his life.
“What do you mean disappeared?”
“She changed numbers.”
Sarah called weakly from her room.
“No, I didn’t.”
Ethan looked toward her.
Sarah stared back.
“Your mother changed yours.”
He frowned.
“She told me you blocked me.”
“She told me you never wanted to hear from us.”
Ethan’s hands curled into fists.
Sarah continued.
“She brought me a letter.”
“What letter?”
“A letter supposedly written by you.”
Ethan stood slowly.
“What did it say?”
“That Noah wasn’t your responsibility. That if I contacted you again, your family would take him from me.”
Ethan looked stunned.
“I never wrote that.”
“I know that now.”
“How?”
Sarah’s eyes moved to me.
“Because six months ago he showed up at my door and acted like I was the one who vanished.”
The room went quiet.
Years of hatred.
Years of absence.
Years of one child asking why his father didn’t want him.
All built on lies.
But not only Margaret’s lies.
Because six months ago Ethan learned enough to start fixing them.
Instead, he hid the truth from me.
I looked at him.
“So when did you learn your mother had lied?”
He swallowed.
“Not all at once.”
“When?”
“About eleven months ago.”
“And you proposed to me ten months ago.”
His eyes closed.
There it was.
One month.
He had known enough before he put a diamond on my finger.
I stood.
“We’re done.”
“Claire.”
“No.”
“You wanted the truth.”
“And now I have it.”
He stood too.
“I was afraid I would lose you.”
“You were right.”
I started toward my parents.
Then Sarah called my name.
I turned.
She was looking through the doorway.
“There’s one more thing.”
Ethan stiffened.
I almost laughed.
Of course there was.
Sarah reached toward a small bag Noah had brought from the car.
“Noah, sweetheart. The blue envelope.”
Noah searched inside and pulled one out.
Sarah took it.
She held it toward me.
“This came with your wedding invitation.”
I walked over.
I opened the envelope.
Inside was a short handwritten note.
I read it once.
Then again.
My hands began shaking.
Claire deserves to know what kind of man she is marrying.
Bring Noah to the wedding.
Make Ethan choose in front of everyone.
I looked at Sarah.
“You thought Ethan wrote this?”
“At first.”
I looked at the handwriting.
I had seen it hundreds of times.
On birthday cards.
Christmas gifts.
Thank-you notes.
Wedding-planning lists.
It wasn’t Ethan’s handwriting.
It was Margaret’s.
But one line bothered me more than everything else.
Make Ethan choose.
Why would Margaret invite the very people she had spent eight years hiding?
Unless she believed Ethan would choose me.
Unless she wanted Sarah and Noah publicly rejected one final time.
I folded the note.
Then a hospital employee rushed toward us.
“Ms. Miller?”
Sarah looked up.
“Yes?”
“Where’s your son?”
Sarah frowned.
“With us.”
We all turned.
The chair beside the bed was empty.
The hallway was empty.
Noah’s juice box was sitting on the floor.
Sarah’s face changed.
“Noah?”
She pushed herself upright.
“Noah!”
Ethan ran toward the elevators.
A nurse came around the corner.
“I saw him leave with an older woman.”
My stomach dropped.
May you like
Sarah whispered one name.
“Margaret.”
