Part 3: “Please Don’t Make Me Go Back”
Ethan glanced toward his vehicle.
“Let’s get inside first.”
He reached for Harper’s hand.
“Come on, sweetheart. Let me get your bag.”
The moment he stepped toward the car, Harper froze.
“No.”
Ethan stopped.
“What is it?”
She pulled her hand away.
Then, before I could understand what was happening, she ran toward me.
Her arms wrapped tightly around my waist.
“Please don’t make me go back.”
Every trace of anger inside me changed.
Not disappeared.
Changed.
I crouched so I could see her face.
“Go back where, sweetheart?”
She pointed toward Ethan’s car.
“To the house with the lady. I want to stay with Dad.”
Ethan looked horrified.
“Harper, honey, no. I’m not taking you back there. I was only getting your backpack.”
I looked directly at Ethan.
He seemed to understand exactly what I was thinking.
“Mom, I didn’t take her from anyone.”
“Then you’d better start explaining.”
Inside the house, I sent Lucas, Mia, and Harper into the den.
The instant the kitchen door closed behind us, I confronted Ethan.
“Is she yours?”
He hesitated.
One second.
Maybe two.
But for a mother, hesitation can be louder than an answer.
“Ethan.”
“Not in the way you’re asking.”
I stared at him.
“What does that mean?”
He lowered himself into a kitchen chair.
“Harper is Claire’s daughter.”
Claire.
Ethan’s ex wife.
Lucas and Mia’s mother.
Ethan and Claire had separated when the twins were three and divorced the following year. Their marriage had ended painfully, but eventually they had managed to create a reasonably peaceful arrangement for their children.
Claire had later started a relationship with a man named Ryan.
“So Harper is Ryan’s daughter?”
“Yes.”
“Then why is she calling you Dad?”
Ethan looked toward the den.
“It didn’t happen overnight.”
About a year earlier, he explained, Claire had occasionally brought Harper along when Ethan picked up Lucas and Mia.
Harper was shy at first.
She sat quietly while the twins gathered their things.
Eventually, she began talking to them.
Then playing with them.
One weekend, Claire became sick and asked Ethan if he could keep all three children for one night.
He agreed.
One night became occasional movie evenings.
Trips to the park.
Pizza nights.
Birthday outings.
Harper slowly became part of the twins’ time with their father.
“And you never told me?”
“I didn’t know what there was to tell.”
“You could have started by telling me another child was spending weekends with you.”
“It wasn’t every weekend.”
I pointed toward the refrigerator.
“That drawing. Lucas made it weeks ago.”
Ethan nodded.
“The three children are Lucas, Mia, and Harper?”
“Yes.”
“And you told the twins not to mention her?”
His expression changed.
“I told them Harper’s family situation was private.”
I stared at him.
“They are eight years old, Ethan.”
“I know.”
“You turned privacy into a secret and asked children to carry it.”
“I know.”
“No. Apparently you didn’t.”
A small voice came from the kitchen doorway.
“Are you mad at Dad?”
Harper stood there holding her stuffed rabbit.
Ethan immediately crouched.
“Grandma is upset with me. Not you.”
Harper looked at me cautiously.
Then she held out the rabbit.
“This is Clover.”
The anger drained from my face despite myself.
I accepted the well loved toy.
“Hello, Clover.”
Harper smiled.
Then she took him back and skipped toward the den.
I waited until her footsteps disappeared.
Then I looked at Ethan.
“Start with Friday.”
