The Unwanted Wife's Return (Ex-Husband Wants Me Back) novel Chapter 264

LUCAS’S POV: 

I found out because of Andrew. 

Which was, honestly, one of the more humbling ways a grown man could find out that his fiance had been keeping a secret from him. I had been at Hatmah and Elijah’s house for dinner. It was one of those comfortable evenings that had become a regular thing over the past year. Häñnah was in the kitchen with Elijah. Andrew was doing homework at the table. Amelia was conducting some kind of investigation into whether the cat next door could be trained to come when called, which seemed optimistic but I had learned not to underestimate Amelia. 

My phone rang. 

I answered it without really looking at the screen because I was in the middle of telling Elijah something and I was multitasking, which I am normally excellent at. It was Martin. I said hello, hang on one second, and then got distracted trying to finish the thought I was mid-way through with Elijah, so I had the phone pressed against my ear but I was not quite listening. 

And then I heard Martin say, very clearly and without knowing I had answered, “She says Sam had a nightmare again. I am going to have to go over there. I know the timing is bad but he asks for me.” 

I stopped talking. 

Elijah looked at me. 

“Who is Sam?” Andrew asked, from the table, with the complete reasonableness of a child who had heard something and wanted information. 

I looked at Andrew. Andrew looked at me. Then he looked back at his homework with the quiet dignity of a boy who had just understood from the expression on my face that he had said something he should not have said out loud, even if it was a perfectly logical question. 

I put the phone back to my ear. 

“Martin,” I said. 

A silence came from his end that was about a quarter of a second too long. “Lucas,” he said. “You answered.” 

“He is your son,” I said. I said it flatly and it was not a question. 

Martin looked at me and I could see everything happening behind his eyes. The decision he was making about how to say the next part. “He is my responsibility,” he said. “I love him like he is mine. But Lucas, I was going to tell you. After the engagement, when things settled, I was going to sit you down and explain everything. I just needed to know that what we had was solid enough first. I was scared.” 

“Scared,” I said. 

“Scared you would leave,” he said. 

I looked at him for a long moment. This man I had known for months. This man I had said yes to, whose ring I was wearing, whose future I had been making plans around. And he had been going to a child he had not told me about. Every time he said he had somewhere to be. Every cancelled plan. Every vague excuse about family things. Every time he came back distracted and would not quite explain why. 

I was not going to cry. I made that decision very clearly and I held to it.