Chapter 4 - THE TRUTH OF THE TRIPLETS
We sat in silence for a long time,
the only sound being the hum of the refrigerator.
“How did you manage?”
he asked,
gesturing to the house.
“I’m an engineer,
Ethan,”
I reminded him.
“I didn't need your money to build a life.”
“I sold the rights to the filtration system we worked on.”
“I started a consulting firm here.”
“I’ve done well for myself.”
He looked impressed,
a flicker of the old Ethan returning.
“You always were the smartest person in the room.”
“Don’t,”
I said,
cutting him off.
“Don’t try to charm me.”
“You lost that right a long time ago.”
Just then,
footsteps thundered down the stairs.
The boys burst into the kitchen,
still in their pajamas.
“Mom,
Theo won’t share the controller!”
Leo complained.
They stopped dead when they saw Ethan sitting at the table.
The silence was heavy.
The boys looked at me,
then at him,
then back at me.
They were smart kids.
They saw the way he looked at them.
They saw the way he looked like them.
Theo,
the youngest and most observant,
walked up to Ethan.
“Are you a giant?”
he asked,
tilting his head.
Ethan let out a choked laugh,
half-sob and half-giggle.
“No,
buddy,”
Ethan said,
kneeling down so he was at eye level.
“I’m just a man who made a very big mistake.”
Theo reached out and touched Ethan’s face.
“Why are you crying?”
Ethan took a deep breath,
his eyes meeting mine over the boy's head.
“Because I just found something I thought I lost forever.”
I wanted to pull them away.
I wanted to scream.
But seeing Ethan on the floor,
surrounded by the sons he didn't know existed,
something in me started to break.
The wall I had built around my heart was showing its first cracks.
“Go back upstairs,
boys,”
I said gently.
“I’ll be up to tuck you in in a minute.”
They obeyed,
but they kept looking back at the stranger in the kitchen.
When they were gone,
Ethan stood up.
“I want a DNA test,”
he said.
I stiffened.
“I’m not questioning you,”
he added quickly.
“I just… I need it for the legal side.”
“I want to be their father,
Olivia.”
“Legally.”
May you like
“Publicly.”
“And I’m going to spend the rest of my life making this up to you.”
