Chapter 13 - ETHAN'S CHOICE
Ethan withdrew from Claire almost completely after the test.
Not because he blamed her.
Because being near her hurt.
Claire eventually confronted him.
“You don’t get to disappear like David.”
He flinched.
“That’s not fair.”
“No.”
She swallowed.
“But it’s true enough to scare me.”
Ethan sat down.
They talked for three hours.
Not about romance.
Ethan began therapy alone.
His first problem was not Claire.
It was David.
He had built his adult identity partly around his father.
Work ethic.
Marriage loyalty.
Responsibility.
Then one secret shattered the image.
His therapist asked:
“Was your father only the affair?”
“No.”
“Was the affair small?”
“No.”
“Then hold both.”
Ethan hated that phrase.
Hold both.
David taught him to drive.
Paid for college.
Stayed overnight at the hospital after Ethan’s appendectomy.
Secretly fathered Claire.
Hid her.
Paid for her.
Never acknowledged her.
Contradiction did not resolve into one moral label.
Ethan eventually stopped trying.
That part had ended.
About the pregnancy.
About future family contact.
About what it would mean if the child was born.
Ethan said:
“I want to be the father.”
Claire looked away.
“I don’t know what I want yet.”
He nodded.
“That’s yours to decide medically.”
“And yours emotionally.”
“Yes.”
They agreed on one thing.
No shame language around the baby.
The child had not made choices.
May you like
Neither had Claire or Ethan when the relationship began.
Whatever came next, the adults who hid the truth would not be allowed to make the child carry it.
