Page 56 of Masquerade Mistake

“Our first date,” I admit, and his mouth drops.

“The book,” he says, shaking his head.

“That was a mistake,” I plead. “It wasn’t a joke, I swear. I wasn’t trying to do anything but coax you into knowing the truth.”

“If you wanted me to know so bad, why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because you told me you didn’t want kids!” I say. He glares at my raised voice, and I lift my hands as I do my best to calm down. “I didn’t want to scare you off when it was obvious there was a huge reason.”

“Yeah, one you went behind my back to figure out,” he shoots at me. I have nothing to say to this. “How many other secrets are you keeping from me, Claire? How many lies have you fed me?”

“I haven’t lied to you!”

“No, you just omitted the truth.” Ethan wipes his mouth, standing up straight even though he still appears a pale shade of green. He opens his mouth to say something else, then shuts it, shaking his head again. “Get in the car,” he finally says.

“What?” I look at him in confusion. “Where are we going?”

“I’m taking you home, and then I’m going back to my house.”

I shake my head, backing up. I pull out my phone.

“I don’t need you to do anything for me,” I say, opening the Uber app. He reaches over and grabs my phone.

“No, that’s your way, isn’t it?” With my phone in hand, he opens the car door and gets in. I narrow my eyes, but also realize I have no ground to stand on here. I also have no choice. I circle the car and get in the passenger side.

We drive in silence, though he’s driving a little faster than usual. It’s like he can’t wait to be free of me. But instead of driving me home, he exits the freeway early.

“Where are we going?” I ask.

He doesn’t answer, but I can already tell. He takes the left into my mother’s neighborhood. But we don’t stop at her house. My eyes stay on the house as we pass it. If I didn’t know about the burned living room and ignored the caution tape wrapped around the house, I wouldn’t even know it had been on fire.

Ethan reaches the end of the street, then turns right. We’re at the dead end. The dead end. He turns off the car, and I start to unbuckle my seatbelt to get out.

“Stay,” he growls, and even though my heart is beating wildly, I don’t move. I stare straight ahead, the memories of that night we first met clashing with this moment now.

“This is the place, right?” he asks.

I nod, and he lets out a rush of air. Both of us are silent for a moment, the sound of our breathing filling the small space.

“I thought about you so many times,” he whispers.

I’m afraid to speak, and so I don’t. But my thoughts are filled with what I want to tell him. That I thought of him too. Not just because he was Finn’s father, but because he was the lifeline I needed that night, and a lifeline I wished I could grasp when times were hard.

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” he asks. I turn to him, confused. “You made me just like my father.” His angry eyes are filled with tears, but he doesn’t brush them away.

“I only just found out,” I say.

“And you didn’t tell me!” I flinch as he slams his hand into the steering wheel, his horn sounding with the impact.

“It’s not that simple!”

“Really?” he asks. “Hey Ethan, I think we knew each other seven years ago, and by the way, you have a kid.”

“Right, and then you’d either disappear again, or you’d try to take my son away from me.”

“Our son!” he yells, and a sob escapes his lips. He clamps his hand over his mouth, just as surprised by the sound as I am. “Our son,” he repeats, this time softly. “And if you think either of those things, you don’t know me very well.”

“You’re right,” I say. “There’s still so much to know about you. But back when I found out? I didn’t know you at all. In fact, the moment I found out you didn’t want kids, I was ready to never see you again. But when I realized you were Finn’s father, I wanted to give you another chance.”

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