Chapter 2 - The Night He Walked Away
Hannah stared at the photograph, the faded colors of the wooden model house blurring behind a sudden rush of hot tears. She refused to let them fall. She blinked them back, swallowing the lump in her throat as the memory of that terrible night five years ago rushed back with suffocating clarity.
"You think I hid her from you out of spite?" Hannah asked, a bitter, humorless laugh escaping her lips. "You really are blind, Ethan."
"I woke up to an empty apartment," Ethan shot back, his voice rising, carrying a suppressed fury that had simmered for half a decade. "Your clothes were gone. Your phone number was disconnected. Your mother told me you never wanted to see me again. I spent six months looking for you before my board forced me to focus on the company merger that made me a billionaire. You vanished, Hannah. Don't act like you were the victim."
"My mother told you that?" Hannah gasped, her eyes widening in genuine shock.
"She packed your boxes, Hannah!" Ethan slammed his palm against the metal counter, making the silverware rattle. "She handed me a letter with your handwriting saying our engagement was a mistake, that you couldn't live in the shadow of a man obsessed with climbing a corporate ladder!"
Hannah’s breath caught. The room spun.
My handwriting.
She remembered that morning vividly. She had written a grocery list on the back of an old notepad before heading to the pharmacy to pick up prenatal vitamins—before she even knew for certain. Her mother had insisted on holding onto her mail while Hannah went to the doctor.
"My mother didn't pack my boxes because of a career," Hannah whispered, horror dawning in her eyes. "She packed them because Jocelyn Cole called her."
Ethan froze. "Jocelyn? What does my mother have to do with this?"
"Your mother visited our apartment while you were at a conference in Chicago," Hannah said, her voice dropping to a terrified whisper. "She threw a checkbook across our kitchen table. She told me that an ambitious, brilliant man like Ethan Mercer couldn't afford to be dragged down by a penniless girl from an abusive broken home. She said if I didn't leave quietly, she would make sure you never secured the venture capital funding for Mercer Urban Systems. She threatened to ruin you before you even started."
Ethan stepped back as if he had been physically struck. "That's... that's impossible. My mother wouldn't..."
"Your mother is a monster wrapped in a Chanel suit, Ethan!" Hannah cried out, the dam finally breaking. "She told me you were destined for greatness, and that my bloodline—my alcoholic father, my struggling mother—was a stain on your future. She gave me twenty-four hours to disappear. She said if I stayed, she would destroy you, and if I left, she would ensure my mother's cancer treatments were paid for anonymously."
Ethan stared at her, his face completely drained of color. He looked like a man watching the foundation of his entire existence crumble into dust.
May you like
"You left... to save me?" he asked, his voice cracking.
"I left because I loved you enough to let you succeed," Hannah said, tears finally spilling over her lashes. "And when I found out I was pregnant two weeks later, I realized something terrifying: if Jocelyn knew about this baby, she would take her from me just like she took you. So I ran. I worked three jobs, I lived in a basement apartment in Queens, and I raised our daughter alone. And now you're standing in your ten-million-dollar mansion, acting like I'm the villain."
