Chapter 7 - Ethan had spent those same months believing Claire rejected him
While Claire thought Ethan had chosen Serena, Ethan believed Claire had abandoned him.
He returned from Montreal to find her number suddenly unavailable.
He drove to her apartment.
The building superintendent said Claire was moving out.
Ethan waited outside.
She never appeared.
He went to the design studio and learned she had resigned.
The receptionist would not provide a private forwarding address.
Ethan emailed.
No reply.
He contacted Julia, Claire’s closest friend.
Julia had been told by Claire not to discuss Ethan because Claire believed he had reconciled with Serena. So Julia said only:
“She doesn’t want to talk to you.”
That sentence devastated him.
He asked:
“Did she say why?”
Julia hesitated.
“You should know.”
Ethan did not.
But those three words sounded like confirmation of guilt.
He assumed Claire discovered something about his separation and decided he had misled her.
Then Serena appeared again.
Not demanding reconciliation.
Offering comfort.
“She always does this to you,” Serena said.
“What?”
“Makes you feel like the love story is bigger than reality.”
Ethan looked at her.
Serena continued:
“She had the fantasy too. Then real life arrived and she disappeared.”
Ethan asked how Serena knew Claire was gone.
Serena claimed mutual acquaintances were talking.
That was believable enough.
Weeks passed.
Serena began therapy.
She apologized for mistakes in the marriage.
She said she did not expect Ethan to forget Claire.
She only wanted them to see whether the years they had built together deserved one final attempt.
Ethan resisted.
Then his father had a cardiac scare.
Family pressure increased.
Serena became useful, calm, present.
Ethan let himself drift back toward the marriage.
Not because Claire stopped mattering.
Because he believed she had chosen absence.
By the time they formally reconciled, he had no idea Claire was living less than a mile from the Newport estate under Serena’s control.
That was why Ethan’s recognition in the corridor was so explosive.
He was not seeing an ex-girlfriend who had taken an unexpected job.
He was seeing the woman he had spent months grieving as another lost future.
Standing inside his own property.
Pregnant.
Terrified.
May you like
And accusing his wife.
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