My Family, My Friends, My Fiancé, All Hers Chapter 09
He had clearly been waiting for a long time.
Several empty coffee cups were scattered outside the car window, and dark stubble shadowed his jaw.
The moment he saw me, he practically sprang out of the car.
“Claire.”
I looked away and started toward the bus stop.
He followed quickly, but kept a full step between us.
He didn’t grab me or block my path.
“I know you don’t want to see me.”
“But there are some things I have to tell you in person.”
I didn’t stop.
He walked beside me, his voice dropping.
“You were the one who saved me that day. I’ve been mistaking you for someone else all this time.”
“If I’d asked your name back then, none of this would’ve happened.”
I stopped and glanced at him.
In the morning light, his face looked exhausted, dark circles beneath his eyes.
He looked nothing like the confident young man who had stood before me five years earlier and said, “You’re
mine now.”
I spoke in a flat voice.
“Then what?”
Ethan paused.
“Now that you know the truth, what do you want?”
“Do you want to try to win me back? Or say you’re sorry and pretend none of this ever happened?”
He opened his mouth, but his vofce came out rough.
“I don’t expect you to forgive me. I only wanted to know if you’re… physically okay.”
“I saw what happened to the baby in the police report.”
“When you called that night, you were asking for help. I didn’t realize it.”
His voice broke on the last few words.
I looked at him without anger or heartbreak.
He simply felt very far away.
He stood right in front of me, yet it felt as if an entire ocean separated us.
“Ethan Carter, I’m physically fine now.”
“The baby is gone. It’s not coming back.”
“You wanted answers, and I gave them to you. I have nothing else to say.”
He took half a step forward, then stopped.
“Then what about us…”
“There is no us anymore.”
I cut him off, my voice flat.
“There was no us left from the moment you hung up on me that night.”
The bus arrived and pulled up to the stop.
I climbed aboard, tapped my ORCA card, and sat in the last row.
As the doors closed, I saw him standing where I’d left him.
His arms hung at his sides. He didn’t move.
After the bus turned the corner, his reflection disappeared from the rear window.
I leaned against the glass and closed my eyes.
My heartbeat was steady.
There was no longing. No hesitation.
The Claire Anderson who had softened at a single word from him had died in that underground garage.
