Chapter 11 - The Husband I Thought I Knew
Ethan admitted it.
Not immediately.
First he denied it.
Then he said he didn’t remember.
Then he asked whether it mattered because the footage had been recovered anyway.
Finally, when I stopped responding, he cracked.
“Yes.”
I stared across the conference room table.
“You deleted footage of your mother assaulting me.”
“She was panicking.”
“So was I. I was on the floor pregnant.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
He flinched.
“I thought deleting it would stop her from doing something worse.”
“What could be worse?”
He looked away.
“Calling the clinic.”
My attorney, Sarah Klein, leaned forward.
“What about the clinic?”
Ethan’s face changed.
I felt it immediately.
“Ethan.”
He rubbed his hands over his knees.
“Mom knew Rebecca helped me.”
My mouth went dry.
“How?”
“Rebecca told her.”
“When?”
“After the transfer.”
“And Margaret didn’t expose you?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because she wanted something.”
Of course.
“What?”
Ethan looked at his father.
Richard was sitting beside Daniel at the other end of the room.
“She wanted me to convince Dad not to put Daniel back in the trust.”
Daniel laughed once.
“So she blackmailed you.”
“Yes.”
“With the fertility fraud.”
“Yes.”
My stomach rolled.
Sarah took notes.
“And you complied?”
“I tried.”
Richard looked at him.
“That’s why you kept asking about my estate plan.”
Ethan nodded.
I remembered those conversations.
Ethan saying his father was getting older.
Ethan worrying that Richard was making “emotional decisions.”
I had thought he cared about his father.
Maybe he did.
But not enough to tell the truth.
I looked at him.
“So Sunday, when your mother shoved me, what did she whisper?”
His eyes closed.
“She said if I defended you, she’d tell you everything.”
My chest hurt.
“She threatened to expose you.”
“Yes.”
“And you chose yourself.”
He started crying.
Not dramatic tears.
Quiet ones.
I hated that they still affected me.
“I was scared,” he said.
“So was I.”
“I knew if you found out how the donor switch happened, I could lose you.”
“You lost me when you decided my consent mattered less than what you wanted.”
His face collapsed.
There are moments in a marriage when you realize love is still there, but the marriage itself may already be dead.
That was mine.
Ethan covered his face.
“I wanted our child to be connected to me.”
“She didn’t need your DNA to be yours.”
“I know that now.”
“You should have known it then.”
He whispered, “I’m sorry.”
I believed he was sorry.
That didn’t make him safe.
Sarah cleared her throat.
“There’s another issue.”
She turned her laptop toward us.
The clinic investigation had finished its preliminary review.
Rebecca had admitted changing the donor record.
But she claimed Ethan did not act alone.
Someone else had pressured her.
Someone who knew Daniel’s identity.
Someone who told her that using Daniel would “repair a mistake Richard made decades ago.”
Richard went still.
“Who?”
Sarah looked at me.
“Rebecca says it was Margaret.”
Nobody spoke.
Ethan shot to his feet.
“No.”
Sarah didn’t blink.
“She says your mother knew before the procedure.”
I stared at Ethan.
All that talk about bloodlines.
All that disgust about Daniel.
All those years of hatred.
It made no sense.
Unless Margaret had wanted Daniel’s child in the family for a reason none of us understood.
Richard suddenly stood.
His face had turned white.
“No.”
Daniel frowned.
“What?”
Richard backed away from the table.
“No, no, no.”
“Dad?”
Richard looked at Daniel.
And for the first time since I had met him, I saw terror.
“Margaret didn’t want your DNA in that baby because you’re my son.”
Daniel froze.
May you like
Richard swallowed.
“She wanted it because she knows you’re not.”
