The Day My Son Stopped Calling Her Mom

“Mr. Harris, I’ll be leaving for an overseas training program next month. This is my resignation letter.”

He looked up, startled. “That’s sudden.”

I gave him the explanation I had already prepared.

“My son’s mother is in Australia. I’m taking him there so we can be together as a family.”

Mr. Harris nodded. “That makes sense. Raising a child on your own here can’t have been easy. Honestly, most of us assumed you were a single dad.”

I smiled faintly.

I wasn’t.

But I was about to be.

The moment I stepped out of his office, I almost collided with Vivian Grant and Noah Quinn.

Vivian was my boss.

She was also the mother of my child.

Seven years ago, I was still her personal assistant. One drunken night changed everything, and not long after, we had a son. This year marked the sixth year of our secret marriage.

It was also the sixth year she refused to let our boy call her Mom.

Vivian had slowed her pace, as if she were deliberately matching Noah’s. He carried a stack of reports in one hand and lightly hooked the other into the hem of her blazer, the gesture intimate enough to make my stomach tighten.

As we passed each other, I still heard myself say her name.

“Vivian…”

She stopped and turned, her expression cooling at once.

“Mr. Cole.”

That tone told me everything.

We were at the office. Here, we were nothing more than employer and employee.

I got the message.

I swallowed what I had been about to say and lowered my voice.

“Ms. Grant.”

She gave a brief nod and moved on, as detached as if I were just another face in the hallway.

I let out a quiet breath and swallowed the news about my resignation along with everything else.

It wasn’t as if she would have cared.

My phone lit up.

It was a message from Theo’s watch.

Dad, is aunt Vivian coming home for my birthday tonight?

I froze, then turned back without thinking.

Vivian had already dipped her head toward Noah to say something. When someone brushed past them, she drew him instinctively into her arms, shielding him with a tenderness she had never once tried to hide from me.

I pushed down the bitterness rising in my throat and sent her a message anyway.

It’s Theo’s birthday today. Will you be home tonight?

From across the corridor, I watched her glance at her phone.

Three seconds later, she slipped it back into her pocket, her expression unchanged.

I looked at the unanswered chat and let out a humorless laugh.

Wake up, Ethan.

You’ve known for a long time that her heart was never going to warm to you. So why are you still hoping for anything else?

I slid my phone back into my pocket, took a steadying breath, and walked away.

Vivian Grant, you’re going to get exactly what you want.

Soon enough.