PART 2:
“Mom… is that man my dad?”
Chloe felt her knees weaken.
For ten years, she had imagined that moment.
She had rehearsed it while silently crying, washing dishes, waiting for buses, and counting coins for diapers.
But nothing could prepare her for hearing Leo ask that question in front of his grandparents.
Thomas couldn’t stop staring at the photograph.
Beatrice cried quietly.
“Yes, sweetheart,” Chloe said, kneeling in front of Leo. “His name was Ethan Vance. And yes, he was your father.”
Leo swallowed.
“Did he know about me?”
Chloe closed her eyes for a second.
“No. He disappeared before I could tell him.”
Thomas gripped the back of a chair.
“Ethan Vance…”
His voice sounded like he was saying the name of a dead man.
“You knew him,” Chloe said.
“He was an intern at the plant,” Thomas murmured. “Brilliant kid. Stubborn as hell.”
Beatrice looked at her husband.
“Why did you never talk about him?”
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