Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH
Ethan reached the door first.
“Victoria.”
She stopped halfway across the restaurant.
Heads turned again.
Victoria slowly faced him.
“Come back.”
Her expression remained composed.
“That tone is unnecessary.”
“Come. Back.”
Something in Ethan’s voice silenced the entire room for a second time.
Victoria walked toward him.
Her heels clicked steadily across the marble floor.
She entered the private dining room and closed the door herself.
“If this is about Richard’s paperwork,” she said, “I suggest remembering that financial records can be misunderstood.”
Ethan placed the document in front of her.
“Your initials.”
She glanced down.
“Lots of people have those initials.”
Richard almost smiled.
“Not many of them had access to Evelyn Blackwood’s family office.”
Evelyn.
Ethan’s mother.
Even hearing the name hurt.
Victoria folded her arms.
“I was Evelyn’s assistant for three summers while I was in graduate school. Everyone knows that.”
Hannah looked at her.
She remembered now.
Victoria had not been Ethan’s girlfriend then.
Not yet.
She had been the polished family friend who seemed to appear at every holiday event.
The woman Evelyn praised constantly.
Smart.
Appropriate.
From the right family.
Hannah had assumed Victoria barely noticed her.
Apparently she had been wrong.
Ethan tapped the paper.
“Did you open this account?”
“No.”
“Did my mother?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you transfer money into it?”
“No.”
Richard leaned forward.
“Then you won’t mind if our forensic accountants review every transaction associated with the Hale family office from that year.”
Victoria’s jaw tightened.
“You’re threatening me.”
“I’m verifying facts.”
“Based on what? A waitress’s story?”
Hannah flinched.
Ethan’s eyes turned cold.
“Do not call her that.”
Victoria stared at him.
Only an hour earlier, Ethan himself had humiliated Hannah in public.
Now the shift in his voice was unmistakable.
Victoria laughed softly.
“Interesting.”
“What is?”
“It took one little boy running across a room for you to forget seven years.”
Ethan looked away.
That landed.
Because she was partly right.
He had spent years telling himself Hannah’s disappearance had destroyed something permanent.
Now proof existed that he might have been wrong, and his emotions were already moving faster than reason.
“I haven’t forgotten anything,” he said.
“Good. Then remember she abandoned you.”
Hannah stood.
“I’m done.”
Ethan turned.
“Hannah—”
“No.”
Her voice was steady now.
“This is exactly why I didn’t want to come.”
She looked at Richard.
“You said Noah could meet his grandfather without becoming evidence in a Blackwood family war.”
Richard’s face tightened.
“You’re right.”
Hannah picked up her bag.
“My son has school tomorrow. I have work at five thirty in the morning. I do not have time to stand in a private dining room while wealthy people argue over who ruined my life most efficiently.”
Richard lowered his eyes.
Ethan took a step toward her.
“What about Noah?”
Hannah froze.
“What about him?”
“If he’s my son—”
“He is.”
The words came quietly.
No dramatic pause.
No accusation.
Just truth.
Ethan went completely still.
Victoria inhaled sharply.
Richard looked down.
Hannah’s hands trembled, but her voice did not.
“Noah is your son.”
Ethan stared at her.
“Are you sure?”
Hannah laughed once.
A broken sound.
“Of course I’m sure.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“I know exactly what you meant.”
“I have to ask.”
“No, Ethan. You wanted to ask because you still don’t trust me.”
His silence confirmed it.
Hannah nodded.
“That is why nothing changes today.”
“Hannah.”
“You don’t get to become his father because a sentence changed your understanding of the past.”
Ethan looked toward the lounge.
Noah had drawn a dinosaur wearing what appeared to be a necktie.
Something inside Ethan twisted painfully.
“I lost six years.”
“So did he.”
That silenced him.
Hannah’s anger finally cracked.
“You lost the idea of a child you didn’t know existed. Noah lost an actual father every single day.”
Ethan looked stricken.
“I didn’t know.”
“And I know that now.”
Her voice softened, but only slightly.
“That matters. But ignorance doesn’t magically create a relationship.”
He nodded slowly.
“What do you want from me?”
“Nothing.”
“That isn’t possible.”
“It has been possible for seven years.”
He closed his eyes.
Richard stood.
“Ethan, let her go.”
Ethan opened them.
Hannah could see the fight inside him.
The billionaire who solved problems with money, leverage, contracts, and force.
And the man who had once sat beside her on a fire escape eating cheap Chinese food because they were too broke in their twenties to afford reservations.
Finally, Ethan stepped aside.
Hannah opened the door.
Noah immediately ran toward her.
“Are we going home?”
“Yes.”
He looked at Richard.
“Bye, Grandpa.”
Richard’s eyes shone.
“Bye, kiddo.”
Then Noah looked at Ethan.
For a strange second, father and son simply stared at each other.
Noah tilted his head.
“Are you Grandpa’s son?”
Ethan swallowed.
“Yes.”
“So you’re my…”
Hannah’s heart stopped.
Noah frowned in concentration.
“My uncle?”
Richard coughed to hide a laugh.
Even Hannah nearly smiled.
Ethan crouched so they were eye level.
“No. Not your uncle.”
Noah waited.
Ethan looked at Hannah.
She gave the smallest shake of her head.
Not yet.
Ethan respected it.
He forced a smile.
“It’s complicated.”
Noah nodded seriously.
“My teacher says that means adults don’t know what they’re doing.”
Richard actually laughed.
For the first time all afternoon, tension broke.
Even Ethan smiled.
“Your teacher might be right.”
Noah waved.
“Bye, complicated guy.”
Then he left with Hannah.
Ethan remained crouched long after the door closed.
Victoria picked up her purse.
“This has gone far enough.”
Ethan stood slowly.
“What does that mean?”
“It means Hannah knows exactly what she’s doing.”
Richard turned.
Victoria continued.
“She arrived with a child who looks like you, charmed your father, and now suddenly your dead mother is conveniently responsible for everything.”
Ethan’s gaze hardened.
“DNA test.”
Richard frowned.
“Ethan.”
“I need certainty.”
Victoria gave a relieved smile.
“Exactly.”
Ethan looked at her.
“You’ll arrange it.”
Her smile disappeared.
“What?”
“You’ve spent the last seven years telling me Hannah betrayed me. If you’re so certain, arrange the best independent laboratory in Chicago.”
Victoria hesitated.
“Of course.”
Richard watched her carefully.
“Why does that make you nervous?”
“It doesn’t.”
But it did.
And they all knew it.
Two days later, Hannah received a letter from Ethan’s attorney.
She nearly tore it in half before reading.
REQUEST FOR VOLUNTARY PATERNITY TEST.
She laughed bitterly.
Of course.
Contracts before trust.
She almost refused.
Then she thought about Noah asking questions one day.
She signed.
The test happened at a private pediatric clinic.
Hannah insisted on being present.
Ethan arrived alone.
No assistant.
No driver.
No Victoria.
He had removed his tie.
For some reason, that made him look younger.
Noah sat on the examination table.
“Does it hurt?”
“No,” the nurse said. “Just a little swab in your cheek.”
Noah looked at Ethan.
“You doing it too?”
“Yes.”
“Are you scared?”
Ethan considered lying.
Then he said, “A little.”
Noah nodded.
“Me too.”
He held out his hand.
Ethan stared.
Noah wiggled his fingers impatiently.
“My mom holds my hand when I’m scared.”
Ethan slowly placed his hand in Noah’s.
Hannah turned away.
Because watching it hurt too much.
The results would take forty-eight hours.
But neither Ethan nor Hannah knew Victoria had already made one phone call.
“Make sure the Blackwood test is handled personally,” she told someone.
A man’s voice answered.
“After seven years, you still want to keep this buried?”
Victoria stood beside the window of her penthouse.
“I want it finished.”
“And if the boy is his?”
May you like
Victoria watched traffic far below.
“Then Ethan never sees that result.”
