Ava sat on the edge of her bed, the letter still clutched in her hand. The words blurred from reading them too many times, her mind stuck on one line:
"I waited for you every day, even when I knew you wouldn't come."
The letter she'd written—meant for Ethan during her pregnancy—had never reached him. And now she knew why. Claudia.
That realization was a poison and a relief all at once. He hadn't left her. He hadn't ignored her.
He never knew.
A soft knock broke the silence.
She looked up. Ethan stood in the doorway, his face unreadable, his hand still trembling from reading the same letter that had nearly broken her.
"She kept it," he said hoarsely. "She actually… kept it from me."
Ava didn't speak. What was there to say? That she had always wondered? That a part of her had doubted herself every single time she remembered how he never showed?
Ethan stepped forward, the pain on his face raw and exposed. "I thought you gave up on me."
"And I thought you didn't care," she whispered. "We both suffered for a lie."
He ran a hand through his hair, pacing. "She read this. She read this and decided I didn't need to know."
"She decided a lot of things for us," Ava said softly.
Silence settled again. Then Ethan looked at her with something shifting behind his eyes—not just hurt, not just betrayal. Determination.
"She doesn't get to win," he said, voice steely. "Not with this. Not anymore."
Ava stood. "What are you going to do?"
He took a breath. "Tell her. Face her. All of it."
Later That Night – The Cole Estate
Claudia was alone in the grand sitting room, sipping wine with a carefully folded newspaper on her lap. The door opened without warning.
Ethan walked in.
One look at his face, and her spine straightened.
"I suppose this isn't a social visit," she said coolly.
He didn't answer. He simply walked up to the ornate fireplace and tossed the letter onto the mantel.
Her face paled.
"I found it," Ethan said, his voice like ice. "The letter Ava wrote to me. The one you intercepted. The one that could've changed everything."
Claudia's eyes flicked to the flames, avoiding his gaze. "It was for your own good."
"You don't get to decide that!" he snapped. "You don't get to rewrite my life because you were scared of her."
"She was going to ruin you," Claudia said. "She was a nobody with a broken future—"
"She was everything," he said sharply. "And you took her from me. You took my son from me."
That silenced her.
Ethan stepped closer, every word laced with fury. "You lied. You manipulated. And now? You're going to stay the hell out of our lives."
"You'd throw away everything for her?" Claudia asked, voice shaking.
"No," Ethan said. "I'm reclaiming everything that was stolen from me."
He turned without another word, leaving the house echoing with the weight of consequences long overdue.
Back at Ava's, she sat on the couch in silence, arms wrapped around herself.
When the door opened, she looked up.
Ethan stepped in, something softer on his face now. No longer just anger—resolve, and clarity.
"It's done," he said simply. "She knows."
Ava stood slowly. "And now?"
He walked up to her and took her hand. "Now we write a new story. Ours. No more lies between us. No more shadows."
She swallowed hard, nodding once.
But deep down, she knew this wasn't the end.
It was only the beginning.