Clara's head had barely wrapped itself around Ethan's statement, when her phone screen vibrated in her lap.
Unknown:
You're welcome.Try eat something and rest. We'll talk about the way forward when I come see you this evening.
Ethan.
Clara's eyes stayed locked on the words, her breath stalling. She read them again, as if repetition would somehow make them make sense.
"What?" Riley's voice cut through, sharp with curiosity. "You look like you just saw a ghost."
Before Clara could hide the phone away, Riley snatched it from her hands. Her gaze skimmed the screen, and for a second, disbelief was all over her face. Then came the slow shake of her head, the tightening of her jaw.
"You're kidding me," Riley muttered. "Ethan Ashford? She let out a short, humorless laugh. "No. Absolutely not."
"You don't need this, Clara," she said, her tone hardening. "Not now. Not ever."
Clara stayed quiet. The name Ethan was one they never spoke, not since that night. Not since the choices that had carved themselves into her life like scars.
But Riley remembered. She remembered Clara at eighteen, pale and silent, staring at the plus sign on that test. She remembered the day her best friend, with a bright future, was forced to make the difficult decision of giving up more than just a child. He was her son, a boy she loved.
Riley had been there when Clara cried so quietly she could barely hear it, as if speaking the grief aloud would make it unbearable. And she had been there when Clara shut it all away, vowing never to let that name, Ethan Ashford, back into her life.
Riley intended to keep it that way.
Across the room, Sofia's gaze drifted to the window, to the swarm of cameras and microphones below. But her thoughts were not in the room, or outside. They were in the past.
On her sister's mistake. On the night everything unraveled for Clara.
Sofia had watched her sister's life change in a single moment. She had stood by, powerless, as Clara made the ultimate sacrifice. Over the years, she tried to make up for it in small ways, tried to make things right, and tried to shield her from more pain.
And Ethan? His family had promised to stay away. They had looked her in the eye and sworn it.
Why go back on their word?