Chapter 6
PART 6:
Teresa’s face tightened.
“I raised you better than this.”
“No,” Ethan said. “You raised me to think silence was respect. It isn’t.”
The sister with the phone lifted her chin.
“We were just recording because she was acting crazy.”
Ethan’s eyes moved to the phone.
“Send it to me.”
“What?”
“Send. It. To. Me.”
She looked at Teresa.
Teresa shook her head slightly.
Ethan saw it.
His voice dropped lower.
“If you don’t send it, I’ll assume there’s a reason you’re hiding it.”
The sister hesitated.
Then she sent the video.
Ethan watched only the first few seconds.
The pan.
The splash.
Emily’s hand on her belly.
Teresa’s voice.
Stop crying and clean it.
He locked the phone and looked at all of them.
“You’re done.”
Teresa scoffed.
“This is my son’s house.”
Ethan’s answer was immediate.
“No. It’s our house. Mine and Emily’s.”
The words hit Emily harder than she expected.
Our house.
Not his.
Not theirs.
Ours.
Then another pain rolled through her body.
Sharper this time.
She gasped.
Ethan’s face changed.
“Hospital. Now.”
Teresa stepped in front of him.
“You’re overreacting. She’s not due for weeks.”
Ethan stared at his mother like he could not recognize her.
“Move.”
For the first time in Emily’s life, Teresa moved.
At the hospital, the nurses took Emily back immediately.
Her blood pressure was high.
She was dehydrated.
Her body was exhausted from stress and hours on her feet.
The baby’s heartbeat was still there.
Strong.
But the doctor’s face was serious.
“She needs rest,” he told Ethan. “No stress. No heavy activity. No prolonged standing. Whatever happened today cannot happen again.”
Ethan stood beside Emily’s bed holding her hand.
His face was pale.
Emily tried to comfort him.
“I should have told you.”
He shook his head.
“No. I should have made sure you knew you could.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I didn’t want to make you choose.”
Ethan bent down and kissed her knuckles.
May you like
“There was never a choice.”
👉 But while Emily was being treated, Teresa was already in the waiting room trying to rewrite the story…
