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The Day My Son Stopped Calling Her Mom
The Day My Son Stopped Calling Her Mom
作者: Rosemary

Chapter 1

作者: Rosemary
“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.
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  • The Day My Son Stopped Calling Her Mom   Chapter 8

    It had taken me five years to get close to Vivian Grant.It had taken her one night to turn all of it to ash.I pushed the door open wider.“Come in.”Something flickered across her face. She followed me inside like she was afraid I might change my mind.“Two sugars. No cream.”I set a cup of coffee in front of her and took the chair across from the couch.Her voice was rough. “You still remember.”I gave a small shrug and said nothing.After a moment, I looked at her.“You came all the way here. I assume you read the divorce papers.”I folded my hands together.“I’m not asking for your money. I’m not asking for half of anything. I want Theo.”Vivian went still.Then she said, quietly but firmly, “I’m not agreeing to a divorce.”I nodded. I had expected that.“That’s fine. I can wait. If it takes a formal separation first, then I’ll wait.”She set her cup down too hard.“You really want out that badly?”“Yes.”Her jaw tightened. After a beat, she said, more quietly, “Don’t rewrite what

  • The Day My Son Stopped Calling Her Mom   Chapter 7

    Vivian spent that entire night on the kitchen floor.By morning, she still hadn’t moved much.It was the first time in her life she had looked truly wrecked.No matter how late she came home, there had always been a light left on for her. Someone had always been there—quiet, patient, waiting on the couch for the sound of her keys in the door.Now there was nothing.The house was too large, too still, and far too empty.When daylight finally came, she went straight to the office without even changing.The moment she pushed open the door to my old workspace, she stopped.My desk had already been cleared.Everything was gone.No coffee mug. No notebook. No stack of files waiting for review. No jacket draped over the chair. Nothing.The emptiness of it seemed to hit her harder than anything else had.A single folder sat in the middle of the desk.Thin. Plain. Final.She walked over, picked it up, and opened it with hands that were not as steady as she wanted them to be.At the top of the p

  • The Day My Son Stopped Calling Her Mom   Chapter 6

    By the time the reception finally ended, Vivian was exhausted enough to feel it in her bones.She exchanged the last of the required pleasantries with the hosts, got into the car, and left as quickly as she decently could. By the time she reached home, the alcohol had caught up with her.She pushed open the front door, one hand pressed to her temple.“Ethan, can you—”The words died in the silence.The house was dark.Still.For a moment, she just stood there, swaying slightly in the entryway.Then it hit her.Ethan and Theo had left yesterday.She reached for the light switch. The foyer lit up all at once, too bright, too empty. She went into the kitchen, opened the fridge, and pulled out a can of sparkling water.It was only when she shut the door that she noticed the magnets.The refrigerator was covered with them—small, colorful cartoon magnets Theo had insisted on arranging himself. Most of them were crooked. A few were stacked on top of each other. One had clearly been stuck on u

  • The Day My Son Stopped Calling Her Mom   Chapter 5

    The image of Ethan walking away with Theo stayed with Vivian long after it should have.She kept seeing the way he hadn’t looked back. The way Theo had buried his face against Ethan’s shoulder. The way both of them had left without giving her any real chance to stop them.Maybe she had taken things too far.Maybe after all these years, Ethan had finally changed.Maybe—At six that evening, Vivian arrived at a partner-hosted reception with Noah beside her and a headache already building behind her eyes.She had not seen Ethan all day.That fact sat badly with her.Worse than it should have.She picked up a glass of wine, barely tasted it, and kept drifting back to the same thought: Had she gone too far this time?The moment it surfaced, she pushed it down.Then one of the partners approached her.“Ms. Grant, about the revised proposal—”Vivian straightened automatically and slipped into work mode. She listened, answered, and asked the right questions. For a few minutes, she almost forgot

  • The Day My Son Stopped Calling Her Mom   Chapter 4

    The next morning, Vivian arrived at the office right on time.She had barely sat down when an email caught her eye.Resignation Letter.Something cold slid through her chest.She was just reaching for the mouse when Noah walked in.“Ms. Grant, here’s the report from last time.”He set the file on her desk and moved to her side with the easy familiarity he had grown used to, resting one hand on the back of her chair as if he belonged there.Once, she would have let it pass without a thought.Now, for some reason, the gesture grated on her.Vivian straightened and opened the report.By the end of the first page, her expression had darkened.The formatting was fine, but almost everything else was wrong. Numbers misplaced. Notes missing. Even the department name had been entered incorrectly.She dropped the file back onto the desk with a sharp snap.“Who did this?” she said coldly. “Does no one in your department know how to do basic work anymore?”Then, more sharply, “Get Mr. Harris in he

  • The Day My Son Stopped Calling Her Mom   Chapter 3

    Noah let out a soft laugh.“Mr. Cole,” he said, glancing between me and the open doorway, “I didn’t realize you were living here.”The question landed exactly the way he meant it to.Before I could answer, I pulled Theo behind me on instinct, shielding him from Noah’s gaze.“I—”“They’re family,” Vivian cut in before I could finish. “They’ve been staying here for a while.”It wasn’t the first time.But every time she denied us like that, it struck the same place in my chest.I opened my mouth to say something, but Theo spoke first.“Hi, Aunt Vivian.”I turned to him so quickly it almost hurt.His eyes were already red.Then he looked up at me and said quietly, “Dad, let’s go.”Whatever I had been about to say died in my throat.I forced my mouth into something that might have passed for a smile.“Okay.”We moved past them.As I brushed by, Vivian caught my wrist.I stopped but didn’t turn right away.When I finally looked back, she was staring at Theo as if she hadn’t heard him correct

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