“Excuse me?”
“No,” I repeat, my voice stronger now. “Both Mr. Whitmore and I are interested in obtaining guardianship.”
There’s a pause. “Ms. Morgan, two days ago you were very clear about this being temporary—”
“Two days ago I didn’t know what an amazing little boy he is,” I say. “We’ll see you at the guardianship hearing.”
From downstairs, I hear Axel’s delighted laughter as Ethan says something. The sound of family. The sound of what we should have been all along.
“I have to go,” I tell Ms. Rodrigue, hanging up before she can respond.
I need to find Ethan.
Fourteen Weeks
Ethan
Ican’t stop my hands from shaking as I queue up a Christmas movie on my phone for Axel while I try to process what Cassidy just told me.
I was pregnant with our child.
The words keep hitting me in waves, each one stealing more air from my lungs. I set a plate of decorated cookies beside him on the couch, making sure he’s comfortable with pillows and blankets, but my movements feel disconnected.
“This okay, buddy?” I ask.
Axel nods eagerly, already transfixed by the opening scene of the movie. “Thanks, Mr. Ethan. Are you going to watch with me?”
“In a bit.” I ruffle his hair. “I need to talk to Ms. Cassidy about something first.”
He doesn’t look away from the screen, already lost in the story of a boy who stopped believing in magic. The similarity isn’t lost on me.
I head for the stairs, my legs feeling like lead. Each step up feels monumental.
I was going to tell you about it on Christmas morning.
Christ, Cassidy must have had it all planned out.
I think about the ring I bought eight years ago, the one hanging on the chain around my neck. I carefully remove it, staring at the diamond that once represented our future, and slip the whole thing into my pocket.
I was going to propose on that Christmas morning. Instead, Cassidy walked into that bedroom and found her world shattered into pieces. And I never knew that when she lost me, she lost our baby too.
The rage is suffocating. Britney didn’t just destroy my relationship with Cassidy. She killed our child. The stress of finding us together, the emotional trauma, of course Cassidy miscarried. How could she not?
If Britney weren’t already dead, I think I might kill her myself. She destroyed us so completely, and for what? Because she was jealous? Because she couldn’t stand to see her sister happy?
I reach the top of the stairs just as Cassidy emerges from Britney’s bedroom with something clutched in her hand. We collide in the narrow doorway, and I automatically reach out to steady her.
“Ethan, I—” She looks up at me with red-rimmed eyes, her face streaked with tears. “I found something.”
She holds out a small leather journal, its pages yellowed and worn. “Read it.”
The journal is filled with years of resentment, page after page describing how Cassidy got the love, the attention, and the perfect boyfriend. Everything Britney believed she deserved.
The words swim before my eyes as I take in the words. Plans to drug me. Plans to break us up. Plans to steal Cassidy’s life because she couldn’t stand to see her sister winning at life.
“Jesus Christ. She actually wrote it down.”
“Ethan, I’m so sorry.” Cassidy’s voice breaks. “I should have listened to you. I should have trusted you. I chose fear over love, and I—”
