You Faked Your Death for Her？Great！I Had His Baby Chapter 09

You Faked Your Death for Her？Great！I Had His Baby Chapter 09

Ethan looked like someone had carved a piece straight out of his chest.

All that certainty.

All that confidence.

All those years of believing a few sweet words would be enough.

Shattered.

“You…”

His lips trembled.

Then he looked at Miles.

“Who are you?”

Miles didn’t answer.

He only looked at me.

I rested one hand over my belly and lifted my eyes to Ethan.

“Sorry.”

My voice was quiet and calm.

“After you ‘died, my husband wasn’t willing to let me spend the rest of my life waiting for you.”

“Who’s your husband?!”

Ethan whipped around toward Miles.

Miles slipped an arm around my shoulders and leaned toward my ear.

“Did a burglar get in?”

His voice was perfectly serious.

“I’ll get the broom.”

Ethan’s face went white, then red, then nearly purple.

“Do you have any idea what I went through this past year?”

“I almost died in those mountains!”

“I fought my way back because of you!”

His voice rose.

“And this is how you treat me?”

I looked at him calmly.

“For me?”

He stopped.

“Before you ‘went missing,‘ you told your hiking buddies I was hopelessly obsessed with you.”

“You said even if you died, I’d spend the rest of my life waiting for you.”

His face drained of color.

“So if you were that sure I’d still be here…”

I looked at his torn technical shell.

“Why risk your life coming back?”

“You could’ve just stayed in the mountains forever.”

Ethan froze.

“You…”

His eyes widened.

“How do you know about that?”

Then the words rushed out.

“Evie, let me explain.”

I couldn’t be bothered to listen.

“You had another woman. She was pregnant. You got legally married in a civil ceremony with her,

then disappeared so you could spend months taking care of her.”

I looked at him.

“Sounds like true love to me.”

“What is there to explain?”

His mouth opened.

“No… Sophie and I…”

He swallowed.

“We already got divorced.”

“And the baby…”

His jaw tightened.

“The baby wasn’t mine.”

“It belonged to another management trainee.”

His voice dropped.

“I was blind.”

I laughed.

So that was why he’d come back early.

“Leave.”

I turned away.

“My husband has a bad temper.”

I glanced back at him.

Ethan stood in the doorway like he’d been struck by lightning.

I walked into the bedroom without looking back and quietly closed the door.

Ethan didn’t leave.

He stayed outside my parents‘ house all night.

The next morning, I opened the window for some air.

He was leaning against the old maple tree outside, his head tipped back as he stared straight at

my bedroom window.

He looked soaked through.

His lips had gone pale.

I closed the curtains and went back to sleep.

By noon, I was on my way back to the city.

After that, Ethan seemed like a different person.

He started texting me from new numbers.

I blocked one.

Another appeared.

[Evie, I know I was wrong.]

Then:

[Can I see you just once?]

Then:

[I don’t expect you to forgive me. I just want to see you.]

I never answered.

So he started waiting outside my office building.

Ethan would stand across the street, watching us through the traffic.

Once, Miles deliberately kissed my forehead right in front of him.

Across the street, I watched Ethan’s shoulders sag

Like a mountain finally collapsing.

The day before I went on maternity leave, Ethan wasn’t there.

I thought he’d finally given up.

The next day. Dad called.

“Ethan came back to town.”

“He’s kneeling outside the house.”

Dad paused.

“He’s been there all day. No matter what anyone says, he refuses to get up.”

“Your mom felt bad for him and brought him a glass of water. He thanked her, drank it, then went

right back to kneeling.”

Dad’s voice grew complicated.

“Evie… he’s lost a lot of weight.”

“He doesn’t look right.”

“Dad, close the door.”

“Don’t bother with him.”

I hung up and sat on the couch, my fingers moving absently over my belly.

Miles came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me, resting his chin on my shoulder.

He didn’t ask what Dad had said.

He didn’t ask about Ethan.

He knew I didn’t need the questions.

And I didn’t need the name brought up.

The last time Ethan came to see me was in winter.

I was three months postpartum and still recovering, sitting on the balcony with my baby girl in my

arms, soaking up the sun.

The doorbell rang.

Miles went to answer it.

Then I heard a voice so hoarse I could barely make it out.

“Can I…”

“Can I just look at her from a distance?”

“Just once.”

Miles turned to look at me.

I held my daughter and didn’t move.

“Let him look.”

When Ethan stepped inside, I almost didn’t recognize him.

He’d gotten painfully thin.

Dark shadows sat beneath his eyes, his cheekbones jutted sharply beneath his skin, and half his

hair had gone gray.

He stopped three steps away.

He looked at me.

Then at the baby in my arms.

“She looks like you.”

His voice was rough as rusted metal.

He stood there for a while.

Then he reached into his pocket and gently placed something on the coffee table.

A champagne–gold wedding favor box.

“This…”

His voice was barely above a whisper.

“I kept it.”

“For the longest time, I couldn’t remember where I’d seen one like it.‘

“Then I remembered.”

“It was the design you picked.”

I didn’t look at the box.

“Go.”

Ethan nodded and turned toward the door.

When he reached it, he stopped.

He didn’t look back.

“So the dream really did come true…”

The words sounded almost like he was talking to himself.

Then the door closed behind him.

Miles walked over, picked up the champagne–gold wedding favor box, and dropped it into the

trash.

Then he crouched in front of me and looked into my eyes.

“What do you want for dinner?”

I smiled

Miles smiled too.

“Okay.”

Later, I heard what happened to Ethan from other people.

After Sophie played him, he came back only to find that I’d married someone else and hadn’t waited for him.

He started drinking himself numb every day.

Day and night blurred together.

By the time the doctors found the cancer, it was already advanced stomach cancer.

After his divorce from Sophie, she walked away with half the ownership stake in the company.

Ethan barely managed the business after that.

He stopped seeing people.

Near the end, the same hiking buddies who’d helped him fake his disappearance took turns looking

after him.

One of them called me once.

“Evelyn, Ethan keeps saying your name.”

“Would you come see him?”

“You’ve got the wrong number.”

Then I hung up.

The day Ethan died, I was at home teaching my daughter to walk.

She tottered toward me, giggling, then tumbled straight into my arms.

Drool smeared across my cheek.

Miles came out of the kitchen carrying a fruit platter

When he saw the two of us laughing together he started laughing too

Happiness isn’t something you wait for.

It’s something you choose.