“No,” I cut in. “I’ll have mine contact yours.”
That got his attention.
The old Hannah would have flinched after saying something like that. The old Hannah would have tried to soften it, explain it, reassure him.
But the old Hannah had also once mistaken silence for peace.
I wasn’t her anymore.
He slid the phone back into his pocket. “You already have a lawyer.”
“No,” Maya said, before I could answer. “She has common sense. The lawyer comes next.”
He stood there for another moment, taking in the room, the bassinet, my friend, the baby at my breast, the life he had not known existed.
Then he did something unexpected.
He asked quietly, “Can I see him?”
Not hold.
Not take.
See.
I hesitated. Leo was still feeding, his eyelids fluttering, one tiny hand flattened against my skin. I looked from my son to the man who had once known the sound of my heartbeat in the dark and now stood in my living room like a stranger who shared our child’s face.
When Leo was done, I shifted him upright and lifted the muslin cloth.
Ethan stepped closer.
Very slowly.
His whole body changed when he looked at the baby.
Not softened. That would be too easy a word.
But broken open, maybe.
Leo yawned, made a small snuffling sound, and opened one eye for half a second before falling asleep again. Ethan stared at the tiny nose, the furrow between the brows, the dark lashes.
“He looks…” He stopped.
“Like you?” Maya asked dryly.
He ignored her.
He looked at me instead, and for the first time since he walked through the door, I saw something other than control.
Fear.
“If he’s mine,” he said, low and steady, “everything changes.”
I held his gaze. “It already has.”
After he left, the apartment felt like the aftermath of a storm.
Not calm. Just temporarily quiet.
Maya locked the door, checked it twice, then came back and uncovered the casserole. The smell of baked pasta, tomato sauce, garlic, and melted cheese filled the room so completely I nearly cried.
“Eat before you pass out,” she said.
“I’m not going to pass out.”
“You say that like fainting asks permission.”
She cut me a square and set it in front of me. I took two bites before I realized how hungry I was. My whole body felt shaky and hollow, like it had been running on panic instead of food for days.
Leo slept in the bassinet again, one hand stretched above his head.
Maya sat across from me and watched me chew.
“He’s going to come back with lawyers,” she said.
“I know.”