Ethan was going to be a father. That single thought had consumed him from the moment he’d left Zoe’s house the night before. The news excited and frightened him. He’d imagined a family—wife, a few kids. He hadn’t been expecting to start one this soon, but what better woman to start one with? He wondered if he would be a good father.
Ethan was sure Zoe would make a great mom. He could go on for days about the great qualities she possessed. His child stood to inherit many of those same great characteristics. Zoe was smart, determined, beautiful, family oriented and even a bit stubborn. And thanks to her breakdown in front of him last night, Ethan understood her even more.
What Zoe didn’t realize was that Ethan was much more like her than she knew. He knew the sting of rejection and abandonment as well as she did, which was why he was at Robert Richford’s office this morning. Ethan hadn’t bothered to call. He’d just shown up, wanting to catch Robert there.
“Good morning. I’m here to see Robert Richford,” Ethan said to the woman in the posh reception area. Frosted glass framed in dark wood separated the area from the rest of the office. He strived to remain composed. Normally that wasn’t an issue for him, but he had no idea how this meeting would go. The last time he’d approached Robert, years before, it hadn’t gone the way he’d wanted it to.
“Good morning!” The woman’s warm greeting and soothing voice generated an involuntary smile. “Is Mr. Richford expecting you?”
“No. But if you could please let him know that Ethan Blackwell is here to see him and it’s urgent, I’d appreciate it.”
“Sure. Just give me one moment.” The woman got up and disappeared through frosted double doors.
Ethan second-guessed his decision to come see Robert. Perhaps he should just leave. Immediately, he tossed that thought from his mind. He had waited long enough. This was the best time to have this conversation. He would leave once he got what he came for.
Moments later, the receptionist returned and invited Ethan to follow her across the office.
“Mr. Blackwell is here to see you,” she said at an open door. She woman stepped aside, smiled and nodded at Ethan. “Good day to you, sir.” She waved her hand for him to step into Robert’s office.
“Thanks.” Ethan walked inside. He looked around, taking in the multiple flat screens displaying various financial news channels. Robert’s office looked as if an interior designer had decorated it. It was a cross between a presidential suite and a home draped in traditional elegance.
Robert stood behind a large mahogany desk. Two burgundy tufted-leather chairs faced it on the opposite side. Robert muted the TVs with a touch of a button. Silenced reporters from various financial news stations reported the status of the stock market.
Robert rounded his desk. “Ethan.” He reached out to shake hands.
Ethan paused a moment before taking Robert’s hand and shaking it. Instead of going back to his chair, Robert sat on the edge of the desk. He motioned for Ethan to sit.
“You look good,” Robert said.
“I didn’t come for the flattery, but thanks.” Ethan’s tone was a bit sharp. He inhaled to remain composed.
“What brings you here this morning, son?”
“Please don’t call me that.”
Robert raised his hands in surrender. “Sorry.”
“Zoe Baldwin,” Ethan said.
“What about her? I’m looking forward to having her join the team. Seems like she’ll be a real asset.”
Ethan paused for a moment pondering the right way to ask his question. “What made you hire her?”
Robert’s brows furrowed. “She’s a great candidate. Her résumé was impressive. Why?”
“You knew she worked for Blackwell, right?”
“Of course, but what does that have to do with anything?” Robert asked.
“Did she come to you or did you solicit her?”
Robert looked as if he were becoming annoyed with Ethan’s line of questioning. “I’m not out here trying to poach on Blackwell’s talent pool. What’s this about, son?”
Ethan flinched inwardly when Robert said the word son. “Nothing. She’s been an asset to the company. I’m sorry to see her go.” Ethan hoped his response sufficed. He didn’t want to appear defeated.
Robert nodded. “I see.”
“I also have a few other questions,” Ethan added. Robert raised a brow but didn’t seem surprised. “I need to know.”
Robert took a deep breath. “Now?”
“Yes. This is as good a time as any. I want to hear it from you. I was young when I came to you before and you refused to see me.”
Robert lifted himself from the edge of the desk and put one hand in the pocket of his tailored slacks. “Have you spoken to your parents?”
“I deserve to hear the truth from you.”
Robert walked toward a window and looked out. It took a few moments, but he finally spoke. “I was wrong. We both were. Perhaps we all were. It was a moment of weakness and horrible judgment.”
Ethan waited for him to continue.
“We were friends...your mother, father and me. They started having issues and your mother had taken to coming to me to discuss them. We had been friends even longer than your father and me. I was supposed to talk some sense into your dad but instead I became emotionally attached to her. I was also going through problems with my wife at the time. With the situation at hand and wild emotions, before we knew it, your mother and I had made the biggest mistakes of our lives.”
Robert paused and drew in a long breath. “My marriage ended up in divorce. Your mother and father were lucky enough to work things out. It was a long time before we even acknowledged the reality that you could be mine. I kept asking. I wanted to know.”
Ethan listened intently. He’d only heard bits and pieces of this story previously. Bill refused to address it, telling Ethan that all he needed to know was that he was Bill’s son and that he loved him. His mother, Lydia, admitted the affair when Ethan approached her as a teen but refused to speak more of it.
“It was years before I knew for sure,” Robert went on. “Before they admitted it to me. Since Bill and Lydia reconciled, all he wanted was for me to stay away from them and you. Somehow, we all thought it was better to leave things alone. You knew Bill as your father. He was taking good care of you. I had a new family of my own. We figured no one would ever know anyway. That was until you came to me. You were a teenager then.” He sat down on the desk again and paused longer this time. “I’d signed papers. You were legally Bill’s child. I couldn’t say anything to you. That’s the only reason I sent you away that day. I dreaded that and could only imagine how you must have felt.”
“My mother told me,” Ethan said. “I hounded her after overhearing something my father said. That’s when I started snooping around. I found you. I understood enough to know that Bill wasn’t my real dad.”
He felt something shift inside of him. All these years, he’d believed that Robert had just rejected him, and now he knew that wasn’t the case. There was more to this story. He needed to speak to his father now.
“Thanks,” Ethan said, standing. He had gotten what he’d come for. What more was there to say?
“Ethan,” Robert called as he made his way to the door.
Ethan turned around.
“Why now?”
“I’m going to be a father.”
Robert nodded. That seemed to be all the explanation he needed.
Ethan headed for the door again.
“Ethan,” Robert called to his back. “For what it’s worth, I may not have been able to show it, but I’ve always watched from the shadows. You’d make any father proud.”
Ethan went back to his office. After work he drove to his parents’ home. He’d timed his visit so that he would catch Bill just as he arrived home. He’d checked in with his mother on the way and knew she wouldn’t be home. He wanted to speak with Bill alone.
Ethan pulled up behind his father just as Bill entered his three-car garage.
“Hey, son!” Bill waved as he got out of the car.
“We need to talk,” Ethan said as he got out.
Bill paused. “Everything okay? Should I pour us a drink?” he said jokingly.
“Perhaps. It’s about Robert Richford.”
Bill lifted his brow and sighed. Slowly he closed his car door. “That.”
“Yes, sir. That.”
“Let’s go into my office.”
Ethan followed his father inside. His mother’s stylish touch was all over their home. Even when she wasn’t there, he could feel her presence. She was out tonight, as she often was, schmoozing on behalf of several nonprofit organizations where she served as a member of the board.
Bill filled two rocks glasses halfway with scotch. He handed one to Ethan and sat on a love seat.
“Can we get right to it?” Ethan wanted to save the small talk for another time.
“I forgave your mother,” Bill said at once. “I loved her. Still love her with everything in me. We worked things out in our marriage and vowed to stick together from that point forward. Sticking with my wife, meant sticking with you—our son,” Bill emphasized.
Ethan sipped his scotch. He looked at Bill, waiting for him to continue.
“I was building the business and wasn’t around often at all. I imagine your mother got quite lonely. We had our issues,” Bill admitted. “In the end, we didn’t want to complicate things so we agreed that Robert would be completely removed from the picture.”
“To save face.”
Bill tilted his head. “You can say that.” He leaned forward. “Ethan, you are my son. I never wanted you to feel any different than your brothers and sister.”
“Yet, I always did.”
Bill dropped his head but lifted it back up. “I’m sorry.”
“I guess none of us are perfect, are we?”
It took a moment, but Bill finally nodded in agreement. “What made you bring this up now?”
“It’s the right time.” Ethan paused and considered his words. He knew that what he was about to say would hit his father hard. “Zoe is pregnant. She’s no fling to me. No careless affair. I care about her—a lot. I want you to know and respect that.”
Silence expanded between them.
Ethan was glad to get that off his chest. “We can talk more later. Right now, I have to go.”
“Of course.” Bill sighed, sat back and took another sip of his scotch.
Ethan wasn’t sure how Bill was taking the news. His response didn’t offer much in the way of how he felt.
“Thanks, Dad.” Ethan held his hand out to his father.
Bill took it, but instead of shaking his hand, he got up and hugged Ethan. “I love you, son.”
“I love you, too, Dad.”
“And I respect your decision.”
Ethan felt lighter than he had in days, possibly years. He left his father and headed straight for Zoe’s house. There would be no covering up the fact that she was having his baby.
There was so much he’d suspected about the situation between his parents and his biological father but hadn’t had confirmed until now. Many times he had tried to convince himself that none of it mattered. But it did, especially now that he was going to be a father himself.
He’d made several attempts to speak to his mother about it over the years, but it always seemed too difficult for her. Ethan hated the sadness that consumed her when he broached the subject. That trip he’d made to Robert’s home as a young man had left him broken. When Robert had refused to speak to him, Ethan had taken on the armor of rejection. Though Bill had never really treated him differently than his siblings, knowing that he wasn’t his biological father had still made Ethan feel like an outsider.
Bill didn’t have to accept him, but he had. So Ethan felt obligated to be as little a burden to him as possible. That was where his desire to please his dad had come from.
How could Ethan have known that was an orchestrated arrangement? He sympathized with his mother. Somehow, he’d understood even as a teen the guilt that had taken hold of her. Until today, his mother was the only person he had spoken to about this.
These questions had lingered for years. However, becoming a father made it necessary to finally seek answers and Ethan was glad that he had. Knowing helped him understand himself. He needed that going into fatherhood.
He reached Zoe’s house just as the sun was setting. She opened the door and stepped aside to let him in. Lifting on her toes, she greeted him with a cordial kiss on the cheek. It wasn’t the passionate greeting he’d grown accustomed to, but it was warmer than the distant space they’d settled into over the past few days.
“I have some things I need to tell you,” Ethan said. He took Zoe by the hand, led her to the living room and sat her down. He was pulling back the curtain on his own truth.