Chapter 3 - THE BOY WHO MIGHT HAVE BEEN HIS
Nobody moved.
I actually thought I'd misheard him.
Ethan hadn't.
His face went completely blank.
“You thought what?”
Marcus rubbed both hands over his face.
“Evelyn and I...”
He stopped.
Ethan's voice sharpened.
“Finish the sentence.”
Marcus looked at me.
That was his first mistake.
“Don't look at Mom,” Ethan said. “Look at me.”
Marcus did.
“Evelyn and I were together briefly before you were born.”
My stomach dropped.
“Before Ethan?”
Marcus nodded.
I had always known Evelyn was his high school sweetheart.
What I hadn't known was that their relationship restarted after Marcus and I were already engaged.
“For how long?” I asked.
“A few months.”
“When?”
He gave me the dates.
I did the math immediately.
Leo was six months younger than Ethan.
My hands went cold.
“You were sleeping with both of us.”
Marcus looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
Ethan stepped backward.
“So all these years you thought Leo might be your biological child.”
Marcus nodded.
“And that's why you chose him?”
“No.”
“You just said—”
“I didn't choose him.”
Ethan laughed.
“You missed my kindergarten race for him.”
“He was sick.”
“You missed state science olympiad.”
“Evelyn had an emergency.”
“You missed today.”
Marcus had no answer.
Ethan's voice cracked for the first time.
“You chose him every time.”
Marcus whispered, “I was trying to make sure I didn't abandon a child who might be mine.”
Ethan stared at him.
“And somehow the way you did that was by abandoning the child you knew was yours?”
Silence.
Perfect.
Brutal.
True.
Marcus looked as if Ethan had punched him.
I almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
Then I remembered something.
“If you thought Leo was yours, why didn't you get a DNA test?”
Marcus and Evelyn had eighteen years.
One test.
One answer.
Marcus looked at the ground.
That hesitation told me there was another secret.
“Marcus.”
He closed his eyes.
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Fourteen years ago.”
My heart started pounding.
“What happened?”
“Evelyn refused.”
“Why?”
“She said knowing would destroy both families.”
I laughed bitterly.
“As opposed to this?”
Marcus said nothing.
Then his phone rang again.
Evelyn.
This time Ethan grabbed it from his hand before either of us could react.
He answered.
“Hi, Evelyn.”
Marcus went pale.
There was silence on the other end.
Ethan continued.
“Dad just told us he thinks Leo might be his son.”
Another silence.
Then Evelyn whispered something.
Ethan's expression changed.
Slowly.
“What do you mean he already knows?”
Marcus froze.
I took the phone.
“Evelyn?”
She was crying.
“Audrey, I can explain.”
“Explain what?”
Her answer came in a whisper.
“Marcus isn't Leo's father.”
I looked at my husband.
Marcus stared at her name on the screen.
May you like
Evelyn continued.
“And he's known that for thirteen years.”
