Chapter 7
I locked the car doors.
Ethan stopped a few feet away, his hands still up.
“I’m not gonna hurt you,” he said. “I swear. Just roll the window down. Please. We can talk out here. I won’t come any closer.”
I stared at him.
The boy I’d loved at nineteen was gone. The angry, drunk kid who’d thrown me into a wall, who’d screamed in my face, who’d made me run for my life in the middle of the night—he was gone. In his place was a tired, quiet man with lines around his eyes, calloused hands, a look of such sadness it almost broke my heart.
Almost.
I rolled the window down an inch.
“What do you want, Ethan?”
“To talk.” He took a step back, giving me space. “To explain. I know you hate me. I know I deserve it. What I did to you back then… it was unforgivable. I was a kid. I was angry. I was drunk all the time. I hurt you. And I’ve spent every day since I got out of prison trying to make up for it. Trying to be a better man.”
He gestured to the pink bicycle behind him.
“I’ve been working on that for Lily. For when she comes to visit. I know she likes pink. She told me when I met her at the park.”
“Jake said you saw us in Chicago.” My voice was tight. “You followed us.”
“I didn’t follow you.” Ethan shook his head. “I was in Chicago for a job interview at the lumber yard. I was walking through the park on my lunch break. I saw you. I almost didn’t recognize you. And then I saw her. Lily. She was running after a butterfly, laughing. And I knew. I looked at her face, and I just knew. She was mine.”
He paused, swallowing hard.
“I didn’t approach you that day. I was scared. I knew you’d run. So I went home. I found you on Facebook. I saw her birthday. It lined up. Nine months after you left me. I hired a lawyer. He told me to get a paternity test. But I didn’t want to do it that way. I wanted to talk to you first. To get to know Lily slow. So I started going back to the park. On weekends. Sometimes after work. I’d sit on a bench and watch her play. Just to be near her.”
His voice cracked.
“One day she came over to me. She’d dropped her ice cream. She was crying. I bought her a new one. We talked for ten minutes. She told me she loved unicorns, that her daddy taught her to skip rocks, that you made the best chocolate chip cookies in the world. She didn’t know who I was. I didn’t tell her. I just… gave her the photo. With the note on the back. I told her to hide it, to wait until I talked to you. I didn’t want to scare her. I didn’t want to scare you.”
I stared at him.
“Then how did she get taken out of school? A man named Ethan Carter signed her out. Forged my signature.”
Ethan’s eyes went wide.
“What? Sarah, I never did that. I swear. I would never take her without your permission. My lawyer said if I did that, I’d never get custody. I’ve been following every rule. Every single one.”
“Someone broke into our house last week. Left a rose in her room. A boot print on the carpet.”
“I haven’t been to Chicago in three months.” Ethan leaned against the car, his face pale. “Sarah, who would do that? Who would want to make me look bad?”
I thought of Diane.
Her voice. Her lies. Her plan to break us apart.
“Daniel’s mother,” I said, quiet. “Diane. She hates me. She found out about you. She dug up everything. She pushed Lily’s plate to make me mad, she found the photo in Lily’s backpack, she used it to turn Daniel against me. She told me herself. She set this all up to get rid of me. To get her son back.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
“Jesus.”
“Jake said you were gonna file for custody.”
“I was.” He nodded. “But not like this. I wanted to do it nice. I wanted us to work something out. I don’t want to take her from you. Or from Daniel. I know he’s the only dad she’s ever known. I just want to be part of her life. I want to take her fishing. Teach her to ride a bike. Be there for her. That’s all. I don’t want a fight.”
Lily leaned forward between the seats, pressing her face to the window.
“Nice man? Can I come out? I wanna see the bike.”
I looked at her. Then at Ethan.
I didn’t trust him. Not fully. Not after everything that had happened. But I believed him about the school. About the break-in. He was telling the truth.
I unlocked the doors.
“Stay right next to me,” I said to Lily. I got out of the car, keeping myself between her and Ethan.
Lily ran past me, straight to him.
Ethan knelt down, his face lighting up like the sun had come out. He didn’t touch her. Just smiled.
“Hey, kiddo. You remember me?”
“Uh-huh.” Lily nodded, bouncing on her heels. “You bought me ice cream. Is that bike for me?”
“Sure is.” Ethan stood up, gesturing to the pink bicycle. “Wanna try it? I fixed the training wheels extra tight. You won’t fall.”
Lily looked up at me, her eyes big. “Please, Mommy? Please?”
I hesitated.
Then I nodded.
“Okay. But slow. And I’m right here.”
For the next hour, I sat on the steps of Ethan’s trailer, watching him teach Lily to ride the bike. He was patient. Gentle. He ran beside her, holding the seat, laughing when she wobbled, cheering when she got her balance. He talked to her like she was the most important person in the world.
He looked like a dad.
A good one.
My chest ached.
This was the man Diane had been terrified of. The man she’d used to destroy my life. And he was just… a guy. A guy who’d made terrible mistakes, who’d paid for them, who wanted a second chance.
When Lily got tired, she came and sat next to me, leaning her head on my shoulder. Ethan brought us both lemonade from inside the trailer. Cold. Sweet.
“Sarah,” he said, sitting down on the step below us, “I don’t know what Diane’s problem is. But I’ll help you. Whatever you need. I’ll tell Daniel the truth. I’ll tell the police. I’ll do whatever it takes to prove she’s the one behind all this. You and Lily don’t deserve this.”
I looked at him.
For the first time in a long time, I felt a tiny spark of hope.
“Thank you,” I said, quiet.
Then we heard it.
Tires screeching on the dirt road.
A black SUV came flying around the corner, kicking up dust. It skidded to a stop right in front of the trailer.
The door flew open.
Daniel jumped out.
His face was red, his eyes wild. He’d been driving all night. I could see it in the dark circles under his eyes, the way he was shaking.
He saw Ethan.
He saw Lily sitting next to me, holding the lemonade Ethan had given her.
And he snapped.
May you like
“You son of a bitch!”
He ran at Ethan, tackling him off the steps, punching him in the face as hard as he could.
