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I swallow back the bile in my throat and open it, pulling out several photographs. My heart swoops inside me.
It’s Izzy.
She’s in a hospital bed, wearing a gown, smiling. She’s younger, about five years or so. And she’s holding a baby. Jaxon, I assume.
For a moment I don’t understand the significance. Until I flip to the next photo.
It’s the glass bassinet next to the bed. It’s empty other than a receiving blanket. Again, I don’t get it. Until I do. The bassinet is labeled with the birth announcement.
October 10th, 2020.
6lb 4oz.
21 inches.
St. Mary’s Regional Hospital, Grand Junction, Colorado.
9:47am.
But that’s not what hits me in the gut like a wrecking ball. All of that information is normal. Irrelevant. It’s the name that has my jaw unhinged, my mouth slack, my eyes unblinking.
Jaxon Ethan Savage.
Chapter 25
Izzy
Ethan is ghosting me.
I know he has a lot to do today (like plant an article in one of Denver’s top magazines so we can bring the monster that is my dad down from the mountain of bodies he is standing on) but still. I have told him more than once that I need to talk to him. And I was hoping to do it before all of this came into play.
I know I should have told him the truth from the beginning. I have been kicking myself for that ever since. But I had my reasons why. At first I was afraid of him. Afraid he’d want to take Jax away from me, afraid that he would tell my dad he has a grandson and they’d work together against me. Then I was afraid he’d want to be involved, only to walk away and break Jax’s heart. So I didn’t say anything. Ethan has always been a nemesis of mine. Someone who drove me crazy in more ways than one and was best avoided.
Until he found me.
And worked his magic on me.
Until we lived out the fantasies we were both having that we had to keep secret for so long.
And now? Now we are working together, he is involved with Jax and seems to love it. And what’s worse? Jax loves it too. Just before bed, he said just that. While I was tucking him and his army of stuffies in for the night, I pulled his glasses from his tiny, sleepy face and he looked up at me with tired but happy eyes and he said the one thing that had the power to puncture my heart forever.
“Mommy, I really like having Ethan around.”
“You do?” I managed to ask.
“Yeah. He’s cool. And he’s nice and he takes us to do fun things.”
“Yeah,” I nodded, smiling so I wouldn’t cry.
But Jaxon kept going. “Do you like having him around?”
I swallowed hard. “I do.”
“Do you like him?” Another twist of the knife.
“...I do.”
“Good. Because I like him too. And I don’t want him to go away.”