Ella stood outside the house, her breath hitching in her chest. The night air was thick with tension, the events inside with Tania still fresh in her mind. She had just learned that Tania had been responsible for more than she could have ever imagined. Her legs felt weak, but her anger burned stronger than ever.
As she was about to walk to her car, she saw Ethan emerge from the front door. His eyes were haunted, reflecting the guilt he’d carried for years. Their gazes met briefly, but neither spoke. The awkward silence between them seemed to amplify the storm that was brewing.
“How’s Grace?” Ella asked, her voice trembling with a mixture of concern and frustration. Grace might have been caught in this web of deception, but she was still a child an innocent victim of Tania’s manipulation.
“Hanging in there,” Ethan replied, his voice gruff. His eyes dropped to the ground, unable to meet Ella’s steady gaze. He knew what was coming.
Ella nodded silently and turned to leave, but before she could take a step, she caught a glimpse of movement. Fabian stepped out from the shadows, his face unreadable. Ethan’s eyes darkened the moment he saw him, and all the bottled-up anger he had kept hidden for so long surged to the surface.
“You!” Ethan growled, rushing toward Fabian like a storm. His fists were clenched tight, and in one swift motion, he swung his arm, his fist colliding with Fabian’s face. The sound of the punch echoed into the night as Fabian stumbled back, blood trickling from his lip.
“Ethan! What the hell are you doing?!” Ella shouted, rushing over to grab Ethan’s arm, pulling him away from Fabian.
Ethan’s chest heaved, his breath ragged as if the weight of years of betrayal was pushing him to the edge. His eyes blazed with fury as he glared at Fabian, but when he turned back to Ella, his expression softened slightly only to harden again as he opened his mouth.
“I can’t hold it in anymore!” Ethan yelled, his voice cracking with emotion. “Do you want to know why I married Tania in the first place? It’s because she got pregnant!” The words ripped out of him like a confession he had long buried. His fists clenched at his sides as if trying to hold onto some shred of control. “I thought it was the right thing to do… I wanted that child, Ella. I’ve always wanted to be a father. And I knew what she did sending someone to kill you! I knew! But I…”
Ella froze, her mind reeling. Ethan’s words echoed in her head, each sentence cutting her deeper. “You knew?” she whispered, her voice shaky but laced with venom. “You knew she tried to kill me, and you stayed with her? Because she was pregnant?”
Ethan looked at her, his face twisted with regret. “I thought I was doing what was right. I thought I was protecting my child our future,” he stammered. “I didn’t want to believe it, Ella, but I couldn’t ignore what Tania did anymore. I was scared…”
Ella’s face twisted with a mix of hurt and disgust. Without warning, she slapped Ethan hard across the face. The sound of her palm against his cheek seemed to snap the world into focus.
“I went to your office that day,” she hissed, her voice low and dangerous. “I went to tell you I was pregnant with your child, Ethan. Your children!” Her voice cracked, and tears welled in her eyes, but she blinked them back, refusing to let them fall. “And Tania my own sister was the one who sent Fabian here to kill me. And you knew? You kept quiet because she was pregnant with your child?!”
Ethan stood frozen, his eyes wide as the weight of Ella’s words sank in. “Ella, I…”
“No, Ethan!” she shouted, stepping closer to him. “You have the nerve to ask for custody of my kids after all of this? Newsflash, Ethan I was pregnant, too! I was run over by the very man your wife hired to kill me!” She pointed toward Fabian, her voice shaking with fury. “And you have the audacity to think you deserve a place in their lives?”
Ethan’s face crumpled, but Ella didn’t give him a chance to respond. “You’ll pay for this, Ethan. You’ll pay for all of it,” she spat before turning to walk toward her car, her hands shaking from the sheer emotion surging through her body.
Ethan stood rooted to the spot, his face pale, his heart pounding in his chest. He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but no words came out. He felt helpless as he watched Ella drive away, the taillights of her car disappearing into the night.
“Ella…” he whispered her name into the wind as if somehow, the night would carry his regret to her. But deep down, he knew there was no coming back from this. He had chosen Tania, chosen to turn a blind eye to her crimes because of the life she carried inside her. And now, he had nothing.
Fabian, standing a few feet away, watched Ethan from the shadows, his expression unreadable. He hadn’t said a word during Ella’s outburst. He hadn’t tried to defend himself or explain the complexity of his own decisions. There was no defense for what he had done, no way to justify it.
He had been a part of Tania’s plans whether by force or choice and now the truth was out, there was no escaping it. The damage had been done.
Fabian took a deep breath and turned to leave, but as he did, Ethan’s voice cut through the night.
“Why didn’t you stop her?” Ethan’s voice was low, almost broken, as he finally turned to face Fabian. “Why did you go along with it? Why did you try to kill her?” The pain in Ethan’s eyes was palpable, and for the first time in a long time, Fabian felt a pang of guilt stab at his chest.
“I didn’t try to kill her,” Fabian replied quietly, his voice barely above a whisper. “I stopped the plan… But I was already in too deep by then. It was too late.” He met Ethan’s gaze, his face stoic but his eyes filled with remorse. “I didn’t save her soon enough, and for that, I’ll never forgive myself.”
Ethan shook his head, his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides. “But you still followed Tania’s orders. You still helped her!” he shouted, his anger boiling over again. “You could have stopped all of this before it even started, but you didn’t. You…”
Fabian cut him off, stepping forward. “I know what I’ve done, Ethan. I don’t need you to remind me. But this….” He gestured toward the house, toward the chaos that had unfolded. “This is on all of us. I may have played my part, but you… You chose Tania over Ella, you moved on to Tania so fast like you never lost a wife… like you never loved Ella. You could have stopped this, too.”
Ethan recoiled as if Fabian’s words had struck him like another punch. Deep down, he knew Fabian was right. He had known about Tania’s actions for years but had buried the truth beneath layers of guilt and fear. Now, everything had come crashing down.
The two men stood there, silence falling between them, both too lost in their own guilt and anger to say anything else. Eventually, Fabian turned and disappeared into the night without another word. Ethan remained, staring after him, feeling the weight of his mistakes crush him further into the ground.
As the night deepened, Ethan screamed into the emptiness, his voice hoarse and filled with a pain that couldn’t be undone. He had lost everything his wife, his children, and his chance at redemption. And now, all he had left was the hollow sound of his own voice echoing back to him in the darkness.
The stars above twinkled indifferently, as if mocking the devastation below. The world moved on, uncaring of Ethan’s shattered heart and broken soul. And as the cold night air settled around him, Ethan finally understood he had no one left to blame but himself.
He buried his face in his hands, the guilt suffocating him. He had lost everything Ella, his children, and even the future he thought he was protecting by staying with Tania. His decisions, made out of fear and cowardice, had destroyed everyone he loved.