The Man They Never Knew

6

Ethan walked out of the hospital without looking back. The automatic doors slid shut behind him, separating him from the room where he had spent the last few hours watching his marriage collapse before his eyes.

He didn’t know what he was supposed to feel anymore. Anger, grief, betrayal—everything had become tangled together until he could no longer distinguish one emotion from another.

Finally, Ethan pulled out his phone. There was only one person he wanted to call.

Natalie Watson had been his university classmate, and their families had remained acquainted over the years.

Her family owned a renowned law firm, one of the most respected in the city, where Natalie currently practiced as an attorney.

If there was anyone Ethan could trust to handle his divorce discreetly and efficiently, it was her.

He found her number and pressed it. The call connected after only two rings, and a sultry female voice came through the speaker.

“Ethan?”

The moment she heard his voice, Natalie immediately sat straighter in her chair.

Ethan’s voice was flat. “I need a divorce.”

Silence followed.

Natalie’s eyes widened before she shot up from her chair so quickly that the documents scattered across her desk nearly fell to the floor. “What?”

Ethan leaned against his car, staring blankly at the hospital entrance. “I’m divorcing Jenny.”

Natalie could hardly believe what she had heard. “Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

There was no hesitation in his answer.

Natalie’s heart began pounding. After all these years, was it finally happening?

She had spent years watching Ethan love another woman, standing quietly on the sidelines and convincing herself that as long as Ethan was happy, her own feelings didn’t matter. But now, Ethan was finally single.

Natalie pressed a hand against her chest, struggling to contain her excitement.

“Where are you?”

“District Virginia Hospital. But I’ll be going home soon.”

“Then tell me your address.”

Ethan hesitated for a moment before giving it to her. “No. 27, Rue Willowbrook, Rosewood Heights.”

“I’ll come to you.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I know.” Her voice was unusually cheerful. “But I’m coming anyway.”

Before Ethan could respond, she ended the call.

He stared at his phone for a moment before putting it away. Natalie had always been like that.

Once she made up her mind, nobody could change it. He didn’t have the energy to argue, so he simply got into his car.

Meanwhile, inside one of the city’s most prestigious law firms, Natalie was already standing in front of the mirror. Her assistant stared at her in confusion.

“Miss Watson?”

Natalie didn’t answer. She simply opened her makeup bag and began applying her makeup with unusual care. Foundation, concealer, blush, lipstick… one by one, she carefully applied each product, her hands almost trembling with excitement.

Her assistant blinked in bewilderment. “What happened?”

Natalie remained silent.

“Did something good happen?”

Still, Natalie said nothing. She simply stared at her reflection as the corners of her lips slowly curved upward.

For the first time in years, she couldn’t stop herself from smiling.

****

By the time Ethan arrived home, the sky had already begun to darken.

He parked his car in the driveway and remained inside for several minutes, staring blankly through the windshield.

The house was silent.

This was the same house where he and Jenny had spent years building a life together. The same place where they had celebrated birthdays, endured arguments, shared meals, and dreamed about the family they would one day have.

Now, for the first time, Ethan realized he was standing in it alone.

He finally stepped out of the car. Inside, everything looked exactly as it had that morning.

Jenny’s slippers were still beside the sofa.

A half-read magazine rested on the coffee table, one of her favorite blankets was folded neatly over the armrest.

Small and ordinary things. Yet every one of them suddenly felt like a reminder of everything he had lost.

Ethan walked over to the sofa and sat down heavily, he leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

For the first time since leaving the hospital, he allowed himself to feel the full weight of what had happened.

Their child was dead and his marriage was over.

And the woman he had loved for most of his life might never have loved him the way he had loved her.

His phone suddenly rang and he opened his eyes.

The familiar hospital number immediately caught his attention.

He answered.

“Hello?”

“Mr. Wade?”

Ethan sat up slightly. “Yes.”

“It’s the doctor who treated Mrs. Perry.”

Ethan’s fingers tightened around the phone. He remembered. Before leaving the hospital, he had requested a paternity test. At the time, he hadn’t even known why he needed it. Perhaps he simply needed one piece of certainty in a situation where everything else had become impossible to understand.

His voice was low. “Did you get the results?”

There was a brief silence on the other end before the doctor answered, “Yes, Mr. Wade.”

Ethan’s heart began pounding. “And?”

The doctor exhaled slowly. “The test confirms that you were the biological father of the fetus.”

Silence followed.

Ethan didn’t move. For several seconds, he simply stared at the wall in front of him, unable to process the words.

His biological child… it had been his.

The child he had spent five years waiting for. The child he had dreamed about. The child he had never even gotten the chance to hold.

His fingers slowly loosened around the phone.

“I see.” His voice was barely audible.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Wade.”

Ethan swallowed hard before quietly replying, “Thank you for letting me know.”

He ended the call and his fingers went slack.

The phone slipped from his hand and landed heavily on the carpet.

He didn’t react.

He simply sat there, staring straight ahead, his body completely frozen as if his mind had stopped functioning.

Ethan slowly sank deeper into the sofa, his head falling back as he stared blankly at the ceiling.

His chest felt as though someone had driven a knife straight through it.

He had lost the one thing he had wanted more than anything, and he hadn’t even known he was a father until it was already too late.

A bitter laugh escaped his lips.

“What a joke…” His voice was barely a whisper.

He had spent the entire day wondering whether the child was even his.

Now he had his answer.

It was… The paternity test had confirmed it.

Yet instead of bringing him relief, the truth only made the pain unbearable.

Ethan slowly covered his face with both hands.

For several seconds, he remained completely still.

Then his shoulders began to tremble.

He had cried countless times with Jenny over the years. He had held her through every failed treatment, every disappointment, every night when she had broken down in his arms.

But this time, there was no one to hold him, to tell him that everything would be okay.

Because it wouldn’t, the child was gone and so was his marriage.

Ethan lowered his hands and stared at the empty room.

His eyes were red.

His mind returned to everything that had happened that day.

But a terrible question refused to disappear.

Had she really been faithful to him?