Untitled Episode
968 Words
Chapter 5: The Truth He Wasn’t Ready For
I didn’t reply.
Not right away.
I sat there in the empty bookstore long after closing time, the rain still pouring outside, Ethan’s last message burning into my screen.
*Try me.*
Those two words terrified me more than his anger ever had.
Because a part of me one I had tried desperately to bury wanted to believe him.
---
That night, I barely slept.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw his face the way it used to look at me soft, unguarded, full of a love he no longer remembered. I woke before dawn with my hand pressed against my stomach, my heart racing.
“I have to protect you,” I whispered.
Even if it meant lying one more time.
By morning, my phone buzzed again.
**Ethan:** *I’m in your town.*
My breath hitched.
**Me:** *You shouldn’t be here.*
**Ethan:** *Too late.*
A second message followed.
**Ethan:** *We need to talk. In person.*
I stared at the words, my chest tightening. I could almost hear his voice—firm, impatient, unmistakably Ethan.
There was no running anymore.
---
We met at a quiet café near the harbor.
I chose a seat by the window, my back straight, my hands folded neatly in my lap like armor. I wore a loose sweater, hoping it would hide what my body could no longer fully conceal.
The bell above the door rang.
I didn’t have to look up to know it was him.
The air shifted.
When I finally raised my eyes, Ethan was standing a few steps away, his dark coat damp from the rain, his expression unreadable. He looked… thinner. Sharper. Like a man who hadn’t been sleeping.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then he pulled out the chair across from me and sat down.
“You disappeared,” he said.
“So did you,” I replied quietly.
His jaw tightened. “You could’ve answered me.”
“I tried,” I said. “You didn’t hear me.”
Silence stretched between us.
“I remember fragments,” he admitted suddenly. “Arguments with Vivian that don’t make sense. A ring mark on my finger that shouldn’t be there. A lease with your name next to mine.”
My heart pounded.
“And every time I ask her,” he continued, “she tells me you were obsessed. That you made things up.”
I met his gaze. “Do you believe her?”
He hesitated.
That hesitation hurt more than I expected.
“I don’t know what to believe,” he said honestly. “That’s why I’m here.”
I took a slow breath. “If you don’t remember me, Ethan, nothing I say will matter.”
“Try,” he said again. Softer this time.
I looked down at my hands.
Then slowly I reached up and slid the ring off my finger.
I placed it on the table between us.
His eyes locked onto it instantly.
“That’s my ring,” he said hoarsely.
“Yes,” I replied. “You gave it to me.”
His fingers twitched, but he didn’t touch it.
“When?” he asked.
“On a rainy night,” I said, my voice shaking despite my effort to stay calm. “You said you didn’t care if the world knew or not as long as I stayed.”
Something flickered in his eyes.
Pain.
Confusion.
Anger.
“You’re saying we were married,” he said slowly.
“I’m saying we loved each other,” I corrected.
He leaned back, running a hand through his hair. “Even if that’s true… why didn’t you fight harder? Why did you leave?”
Because I was pregnant.
The words burned my throat.
Because you erased me.
Because she threatened me.
I swallowed them all.
“Because staying was killing me,” I said instead.
He stared at me for a long moment, then his gaze dropped.
To my stomach.
The silence that followed was deafening.
“You look… different,” he said carefully.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
“Different how?” I asked, though I already knew.
He didn’t answer immediately.
Then he asked the question I had been dreading.
“Are you sick?”
I shook my head.
His eyes narrowed. “Then why are you hiding your body?”
I stood abruptly, my chair scraping loudly against the floor.
“This was a mistake,” I said. “I shouldn’t have come.”
“Lina,” he said, standing too. “What aren’t you telling me?”
My hands curled into fists.
I wanted to scream the truth. I wanted to shove his hand onto my stomach and force him to feel the life he helped create.
But fear won.
“I can’t do this,” I whispered.
I grabbed my coat and rushed past him.
“Wait!” he called after me.
I didn’t stop.
Outside, the rain had slowed to a mist, but my vision blurred anyway. I barely made it down the street before my legs gave out.
I bent forward, gasping, one hand braced against a wall
the other instinctively cradling my belly.
A shadow fell over me.
“Lina,” Ethan said sharply. “What’s wrong?”
I straightened too quickly, panic flashing through me.
“Nothing.”
“That’s a lie,” he snapped.
Then his hand closed gently but firmly around my wrist.
His touch sent a jolt through me, familiar and devastating.
And in that instant, I knew something terrible and inevitable was about to happen.
Because no matter how hard I tried to hide it
Ethan was getting closer to the truth.
And once he saw what I was protecting…
There would be no turning back.
- Writer
