“Everyone does.”
“Not like me.”
“Clara, people took advantage of you because they were dishonest. That does not make you foolish.”
She thought about that.
Then she said, “I need help with some things.”
“Yes.”
“But I can choose who I love.”
“Yes, you can.”
She looked at me directly.
“I choose Ethan.”
I swallowed.
“Then he needs to tell you the whole truth.”
“Yes.”
Julian came to the hospital the next day.
I recognized him from a photograph Clara had shown the police.
He stood near the vending machines in a dark jacket and baseball cap.
When he saw me, he smiled.
“You must be Ethan’s sister.”
“You need to leave.”
“I came to see my child.”
“Security is coming.”
He laughed.
“Clara called them?”
“She doesn’t want you here.”
“She doesn’t know what she wants.”
The words made me furious.
“She knows she wants you gone.”
He held up his phone.
On the screen was an old photograph of Ethan standing beside Dr. Vale.
Ethan looked about twenty-five.
“You think Ethan met Clara after the funeral?” Julian asked.
I said nothing.
“He knew the old man for years.”
“That proves nothing.”
“Dr. Vale paid for Ethan’s university.”
My confidence faltered.
Julian noticed.
“He didn’t tell you that?”
“You’re lying.”
“Ask him about the promise.”
“What promise?”
“That he would take care of Clara.”
A voice behind me said, “Step away from my sister.”
Ethan stood at the end of the corridor.
His face was calm, but his eyes were not.
Julian turned.
“The hero is here.”
“You are violating a court order,” Ethan said.
“I came to see my daughter.”
“You abandoned Clara, stole from her, and sent threats.”
“You can’t prove that.”
Ethan held up his phone.
“I recorded your messages.”
Julian’s expression changed.
Two security officers entered the corridor.
Julian looked toward the exit.
As they took him away, he turned back.
“Ask him whether he would have looked at her twice without the promise.”
Ethan did not answer.
That silence told me there was more.
I found Ethan that evening in the hospital chapel.
He sat alone in the front row.
“Did Dr. Vale pay for your university?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“My heart condition became serious again when I was seventeen.”
I stared at him.
“You almost died again?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t we know?”
“Mom was already struggling. Dad’s business was failing. You were having problems at school.”
“That does not explain why you hid it.”
“I was scared.”
It was the first honest answer he had given me.
