“So when she told me you’d decided to try being a family…”
“She was lying. She’s been lying about everything.” Sam reached across the table. “She admitted she wanted you gone.”
“But the phone call,” I said, needing to understand all of it. “Jimmy called while I was home and said they could move out in two days. That seemed like—”
“Chloe, no.” Sam’s face went pale. “Jimmy called on Emma’s birthday to give me a month’s notice. His wife got a job offer in New York.”
The relief was so sudden it made me dizzy. “But he said—”
“I hadn’t even called him back yet when you left.” Sam reached for my hand. “Your mom told me you’d gotten that call, and I realized the timing. Things just fell into place for them, so they left.”
I closed my eyes, seeing it clearly now. “Right after Jenna told me you were moving in with them, I got a call about your house being available. It felt like proof.”
“It was a horrible coincidence.” Sam’s voice was thick with regret. “But Chloe, if I’d just told you about Leo from the start, you would have known Jenna was lying. The phone call wouldn’t have mattered.”
“She made me think I was the problem. That Leo needed your complete attention, and I was just… in the way.”
“You were never in the way. You are the solution I was too scared to ask for.” Sam reached across the table and took my hand. “Arthur hired a private investigator to look into her.”
“A private investigator?”
“I should have done it from the beginning. I should have been strategic instead of reactive.” He gave me a rueful smile. “But I’m thinking clearly now. Arthur’s handling the legal side, documenting everything, making sure any arrangement protects Leo’s interests, not just Jenna’s wants.”
I felt something settle in my chest. This was the Sam I knew - the one who thought ahead, who protected the people he loved, who didn’t just react emotionally.
I studied his face across the table - the exhaustion carved into the lines around his eyes, the stubble shadowing his jaw from days of not caring about appearances, the way his hands trembled slightly as they rested on the table between us. He’d stayed. Despite my note telling him to leave, despite three days of silence, despite not knowing when I was coming back, he’d stayed and waited.
Sam’s voice, raw and broken, pulled me from my thoughts. “Chloe, I need you to understand something. What I did to you… the lying, the secrecy, the distance…” He took a shaky breath. “I know what happened with Sean did to you. You told me about it, about how he made you question your own instincts, how you felt crazy for months because you knew something was wrong, but he kept telling you everything was fine.”
I felt tears prick my eyes because he was right.
“And then I did the same thing to you.” Sam’s voice cracked. “I saw all the signs that you were hurting, and I told myself it was temporary, that once I fixed everything, you’d be okay again. But Chloe, I was making you relive your worst trauma while telling myself I was protecting you.”
“Sam—”
“No, please let me say this.” He finally looked up at me, and his eyes were red-rimmed. “I did that to you. My lies, my secrecy, my cowardice — I made the woman I love physically ill with anxiety.” His voice broke completely.
“I’m not asking you to forgive me,” Sam continued. “I’m telling you that I see it now. I see what I did to you, how I made you doubt yourself, how I triggered every fear you had from Sean. And I’m asking for the chance to spend the rest of my life proving that I will never, ever do that to you again.”
He took a shaky breath. “You want to know the worst part? I knew better. I watched Jack nearly lose Harper. I gave him lectures about being honest, about being a partner.” His voiceturned bitter. “And then when it was my crisis, when it was my life falling apart, I did exactly what I’d told him not to do.”
“Why?” I asked quietly. “If you knew better, why did you do it anyway?”
“Because I panicked. When Jenna texted me that photo at the restaurant, showing me Leo’s face, I couldn’t think straight. I just… froze. And instead of doing what I knew was right — turning to you, telling you immediately, asking for your help — I convinced myself I needed to fix it first. Present you with a solution instead of a problem.” He shook his head. “It’s easy to see the right answer when it’s someone else’s crisis. But when you’re emotionally invested, when you’re terrified of losing everything that matters… I couldn’t see anything clearly. I just kept reacting instead of thinking.”
“How did you finally see it?”
“Jack and Harper.” Sam’s voice softened. “After you left, they stayed with me. Jack asked me what the hell happened to the Sam who lectured him about honesty.” He looked at me. “They made me see that I wasn’t acting like myself. That fear had made me stupid, made me do the exact opposite of what I knew was right.”
“The truth is I was a coward,” Sam continued. “I was so terrified of losing you that I kept lying, kept putting it off, kept convincing myself I could manage everything alone. And by the time Jack and Harper shook me out of that panic and made me think clearly again, Jenna had already poisoned the well.”
I thought about Leo at the grocery store, his innocent excitement about animals, his easy trust in adults he felt safe with. “And Leo? How is he handling all this?”
“He’s okay.” Sam’s voice softened. “He doesn’t really understand the adult drama, which is probably for the best.”
My heart ached for this little boy. “I want to see him,” I said quietly.
“Chloe–”
