I had never spoken to her like that before. But motherhood had entered me like a second spine.
“No more conversations around me,” I said. “No more decisions made outside the room. If this is about me or Maya, he stays.”
Ethan did not move.
Marianne looked at him for a long moment, then sighed.
“Your mother came to see me two months ago,” she said.
The room went silent.
“What?” I whispered.
“She found my house. I don’t know how. She said she was worried about you.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you were seven months pregnant and finally sleeping through the night again.”
“That wasn’t your choice to make.”
“I know.”
The hurt in my own voice surprised me.
Marianne’s eyes filled.
“I thought I was protecting you.”
Everyone always thought that.
Ethan’s mother.
Ethan.
Now Marianne.
Protection, I was learning, could feel very much like control when no one asked what you needed.
“What did Vivian say?” Ethan asked.
Marianne’s gaze sharpened on him.
“She said Chloe was making a mistake. That a baby needed both sides of the family. That secrets had consequences.”
My hand closed around the blanket.
“She knew.”
“Yes,” Marianne said softly. “She knew.”
Ethan went pale.
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“What else?” I asked.
Marianne hesitated.
I knew that hesitation.
There was more.
“Aunt Marianne.”
“She asked if Ethan knew. I told her that was between you and him.”
“You told her he didn’t.”
“No. But she understood.”
I closed my eyes.
The room spun with exhaustion.
Marianne reached for my hand, but I pulled back.
Pain crossed her face.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“Did she threaten you?”
“No. Not exactly.”
“What does that mean?”
“She said if you continued hiding the baby, things could become legally complicated after the birth.”
Ethan’s head snapped up.
“She said that?”
“Yes.”
“And you didn’t call me?” I asked.
“I spoke to a lawyer.”
That stopped me.
“What?”
“Only for advice. Quietly. I wanted to know your rights before I frightened you.”
“And what did the lawyer say?”
“That Vivian had no rights. Ethan might, if paternity was established, but not Vivian. Not unless there were extreme circumstances, and there weren’t.”
Ethan’s voice was low.
“Who was the lawyer?”
Marianne looked away.
“Daniel Price.”
Something flickered across Ethan’s face.
“You know him?” I asked.
“He’s my mother’s lawyer.”
The air left the room.
Marianne stared at him.
