“I stopped because every person around me told me continuing meant I was refusing reality.”
Nora’s tears spilled.
Ethan squeezed her hand.
Alexandra continued:
“I never had another child.”
“I couldn't.”
“Not because I didn't want children.”
“Because losing you…”
She stopped.
“I’m sorry.”
Nora asked:
“Why are you sorry?”
Alexandra looked at her.
“For not finding you.”
Ethan said quietly:
“That may not have been your fault.”
Alexandra turned.
“You said Hannah wrote something.”
Ethan nodded.
He looked uneasy.
“What?”
“She wrote down what the injured woman said.”
Alexandra leaned forward.
“What did Miriam say?”
Ethan’s voice lowered.
“Hannah said Miriam kept repeating two things.”
“First was, ‘Don't let him take the baby.’”
Alexandra’s face changed.
“Who?”
“She never said clearly.”
“And the second?”
Ethan looked directly at her.
“Vale.”
Alexandra went motionless.
“She said Vale?”
“Hannah thought she might have been saying ‘valley.’”
“She wrote both possibilities.”
“But after I found your article three days ago…”
Alexandra stared.
“Three days ago?”
Ethan closed his eyes.
There.
The secret he had been avoiding.
Nora turned toward him.
“You knew?”
“Not knew.”
“But you thought.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Ethan looked at Alexandra.
“Nora had a school ancestry project.”
“She started asking about where she came from.”
“I pulled Hannah’s old adoption file.”
“I’d seen it before.”
“But this time I searched the locket.”
“The star design.”
“The date.”
“I found an archived article about Emilia Vale.”
“There was one photo of the locket.”
Alexandra whispered:
“You knew before today.”
“I suspected.”
“Why didn't you call me?”
Ethan looked at Nora.
Then back.
“Because I was scared.”
Alexandra almost snapped.
Then saw his face.
A father.
Terrified of losing his child.
Her anger dissolved into something harder.
Understanding.
“You thought I’d take her.”
“I didn't know you.”
“You knew billionaire.”
“CEO.”
“Lawyers.”
“Resources.”
“I’m a mechanic in Cedar Ridge.”
“You walk into court saying biology.”
“I walk in saying I raised her.”
“I didn't know which one mattered more to people with power.”
Alexandra looked down.
He was not wrong to fear that.
Her own lawyers could turn a family into a battlefield before anyone realized it.
She said:
“I won't do that.”
Ethan’s expression remained cautious.
“You can say that today.”
“I can say it tomorrow too.”
“Alexandra…”
“I lost eight years.”
Her voice strengthened.
“I will not spend the ninth making her afraid that loving you means betraying me.”
Nora looked at her.
Alexandra’s eyes filled again.
“I don't know what I am to you yet.”
“But he is your father.”
Ethan looked away.
His eyes were wet.
Alexandra continued: