All Chapters of The billionaire ex-wife: we have a child: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Ethan Carter POV Two days passed slowly. The hospital was quiet in a way that got into your head. Nurses came and went. Machines beeped. Food came at times that made no sense. I slept more than I ever had in my life, but I still woke up tired. But mostly, I thought. I thought about Mason and his cartoon characters with little wings. I thought about the way he hugged me before he left, careful and slow, like someone had taught him to be gentle with broken things. I thought about the T-rex I drew on that napkin and wondered if he still had it. I thought about Aria. The way she sat across the room with her phone face down on her knee, acting like she wasn’t watching us. The way she said don’t before I could finish my sentence and somehow knew exactly what I was about to ask. The way her whole face changed when Mason leaned on her in the hallway. She loved that boy with all her heart. And that boy was mine. Four years. He was four years old and I didn’t even know he existed. I was

Ethan Carter POVThe sandwich shop was small and warm and smelled like toasted bread and coffee.Mason walked in like he owned the place.He went straight to the counter, pressed his face against the glass display case, and started looking at every single thing inside very carefully. The woman behind the counter watched him with a smile.“I need to see everything,” he told her seriously.“Take your time,” she said.“Thank you.” He pressed closer to the glass. “What’s that one?”“Tuna melt.”He pulled back a little. “That sounds wrong.”I looked at Aria over his head. She pressed her lips together, trying not to smile.We found a table near the window. Mason wanted to sit next to me, and I felt it in my chest in a way I wasn’t ready for. He climbed into the chair beside me, took off his jacket, and right away knocked his fork onto the floor.“Oops,” he said happily.Aria gave him another one without looking up from the menu. Like she had done it a thousand times before. Because she ha

Ethan Carter POVCole Dawson picked up on the second ring.“Ethan.”“I need you,” I said. No extra talk. No small chat. Cole never needed that anyway.A short pause. “When?”“Now. Today. As fast as you can come.”“Give me two hours.”“I’ll text you the place.”He ended the call. That was Cole. Fourteen years of friendship, and he never once asked too many questions. When I said I needed him, he always came. Every time.I put the phone down and looked at Aria.She still had the paper in her hands. Sienna’s photo was still there. She was looking at it very hard. Her face looked calm, but I could tell her mind was not calm.“Who is Cole Dawson?” she asked.“We met when I was twenty-two. He was doing security work for a company I was investing in. Smart. Careful. He doesn’t miss things,” I said. I picked up my coffee. “After the army, he started his own company. Private security. Investigations. That kind of work.”“You trust him.”“With my life. More than that, right now, with Mason’s.”

Ethan Carter POVI noticed Aria’s face the moment she stood up from the bench.Something was wrong.“Mason, stay right here for a minute,” I said, gently putting him down near the bottom of the slide. “Don’t move, okay?”“Okay,” he said, already busy watching a little beetle crawling near his shoe.I quickly walked across the grass. Aria’s face had turned pale. She was still holding her phone tightly, like it could burn her.“What happened?” I asked.“She called me,” Aria said. Her voice sounded calm, but I could hear the fear underneath. “Sienna. She just called my phone.”Everything inside me went cold.“What did she say?”“She said…” Aria swallowed hard. “She said it’s been a long time. She said Mason has your eyes. Then she said we should enjoy the park while we still can.”Harper’s face went completely white.“Ethan, how does she even have Aria’s number?”“I don’t know.”I looked around the park. At the entrance. The trees. The people walking dogs. Parents pushing strollers.Su

Aria Bennett POVMason was sleeping.Exactly where he was supposed to be. Curled up on his side, one arm over his stuffed dinosaur, breathing slowly and evenly, completely not knowing that anything was wrong.I stood in the doorway with my hand pressed against my chest, my heart beating so hard it hurt.Ethan was already by the window, pulling the curtains closed and checking the latch.“It’s locked,” he said softly. “From the inside.”“Then how” I couldn’t finish.“From outside.” He turned to look at the window again, his face hard. “Someone stood out there. Close enough to take a picture through the gap in the curtains.”I walked across the room and knelt beside Mason’s bed, my hand hovering over his hair, not touching him because I was scared to wake him up. His chest moved up and down. Steady. Safe.For now.“I’m calling Cole,” Ethan said, already dialing, his voice low so it wouldn’t carry. He stepped into the hallway.I stayed where I was, kneeling beside my son’s bed, watchin