Chapter 4

Ethan stared at his mother.

“Mom. I told you not to bring this up again.

“Besides, Claire and I still have Lily—”

His eyes shifted toward me automatically.

Diane did not care.

“Rebecca grew up right beside you. Leo is your godson. He’s tiny, and his condition has only just stabilized. If you’re his father, there’ll be someone to look after him.”

Ethan pressed his lips together.

He did not reject the idea.

That hesitation told me everything. There was nothing steady left in his eyes.

Rebecca immediately played the reasonable one.

“Ethan, it’s all right if you don’t want to. I can raise Leo myself. Don’t put yourself in a difficult position for my sake.”

Diane kept pushing.

Ethan looked at me for a long time.

Finally, he sighed.

“Claire, you heard her. There’s really nothing I can do.

“Why don’t we divorce for now? Once Leo is grown and doesn’t need me anymore, we can remarry.”

The last piece of hope inside me went out so quietly that I almost felt relief.

Of course he chose someone else again.

My clenched hands relaxed.

“Fine.”

I set down my fork.

“When do you want to file? Now?”

Ethan clearly hadn’t expected me to agree so quickly.

Something complicated went across his face.

When no one spoke, I had no interest in staying.

As I headed for the door, Ethan called after me.

“I mean it, Claire. The moment Leo doesn’t need me, we remarry.

“Until then I’ll provide for you and our daughter. I’ll be a proper father to her.”

I did not answer.

I left his mother’s house and went straight to the hospital.

I was taking my daughter out of there.

Specimen or not, she was still mine.

Staff tried to stop me outside the specimen collection. A doctor came after me down the hall.

“Ms. Morgan, your daughter’s father consented to the donation. We obtained the authorization lawfully.

“I understand what you’re feeling right now, but you can’t just take her out of here.”

I didn’t hear any of it.

I picked up a fire extinguisher and swung it into the case, again and again.

The glass gave way. A shard opened my palm.

I didn’t care.

I gathered my daughter’s small body against my chest and looked at them.

“I’m her mother.”

My voice shook.

“I never agreed to this. None of you had the right to take her from me.”

The doctors couldn’t stop me, so they called Ethan and Rebecca.

They arrived while staff still had hold of me.

Rebecca immediately raised her voice.

“Claire, can you stop this? If you have a problem with us, fine, but why come and wreck a hospital? These specimens matter to their research.”

She pretended to be calming me.

Every word reminded me that Ethan’s signature was the reason Lily had ended up behind glass.

Lily could have been saved. They were the reason she wasn’t.

Ethan took in my red eyes and the wreckage on the floor and frowned.

“You said you didn’t care. Now you come here and cause a scene? Did you ever once think about how this makes me look?”

I held Lily tighter.

“You want to marry Rebecca?”

I met his eyes.

“Have her.”

Then I walked past him.

He had never seen me like this. He shouted after me.

“Claire! If you walk out now, don’t ever come back.”

I never slowed down.

My daughter and I would give him exactly what he asked for.

We were never coming back.