Mom, Don't Cry! Here comes a new Daddy! novel Chapter 118

Chapter 108

Chapter 108

(Ethan’s POV)

My phone rings while Jake is still celebrating his future name change at the breakfast table.

I glance at the screen. My chest tightens.

Grandmother.

She never calls this early unless it’s urgent. Or unless she’s about to make something urgent

I step into the hallway and answer. “Grandmother.”

“I’m coming home,” she says without preamble. No greeting. No small talk. Just that.

“When?”

“Friday. I’m flying in Thursday night but I’ll need time to settle. I want to meet this Sabrina on Friday evening. And the boy.”

Three days. She’s giving me three days to prepare.

“Her name is Sabrina Moore. Jake is six. They’re-”

“I’ll form my own assessment when I meet them. Six o’clock. Your penthouse.”

The line goes dead.

I stand in the hallway, phone still in my hand, listening to Jake’s laughter from the kitchen. Sabrina saying something that makes him laugh harder.

They have no idea what’s coming.

I walk back into the kitchen. Jake is still at the table, drawing something in his sketchbook with one hand while eating toast with the other. Sabrina is at the counter, rinsing dishes. She looks up when I come in and her smile fades immediately.

“What’s wrong?”

I set my phone on the counter. “My grandmother’s coming home. She wants to meet you both.”

“Okay.” She dries her hands on the dish towel. “When?”

“Friday evening.”

Chapter 108

“This Friday?”

“This Friday.”

Jake looks up from his sketchbook. “Is that the scary grandma you told me about?”

“I never said scary.”

“You said she’s tough and doesn’t like anyone and nobody’s ever good enough.” He counts these facts on his fingers like he’s presenting evidence in court. “That sounds scary.”

Sabrina sets the dish towel down very carefully. “Should I be worried?”

I want to say no. I want to tell her that Kate will take one look at her and see what I see-that she’s brilliant and strong and exactly what our family needs. But I’ve watched my grandmother dismantle corporate executives with three questions and a raised eyebrow. I’ve seen her make grown men cry during contract negotiations without ever raising her voice.

“She’s protective,” I say instead. “Of me. Of the family. Of the Hale name.”

“And she doesn’t think I’m good enough for the Hale name.”

It’s not a question.

“She doesn’t know you yet.”

Sabrina looks at me for a long moment. Then she picks up the dish towel again and goes back to the dishes. “Tell me about her.”

So I do.

I tell her about how Kate built Hale Global from a small import business my grandfather started, how she turned it into what it is today. How my father inherited the company but Kate was always the one running things behind the scenes. How she raised me after my mother died because my father couldn’t look at me without seeing what he’d lost.

I tell her Kate has opinions about everything and expresses them without apology. That she values competence and strength and has no patience for weakness or pretense. That she’s never approved of a single woman any Hale man has brought home, including my mother, though she grew to respect her eventually.

I don’t tell her that “eventually” took five years.

Sabrina listens without interrupting. She dries each dish with methodical care, stacking them in the cabinet with precise movements. When I finish, she’s quiet for a moment.

“So she’s going to hate me.”

Chapter 108

“She’s going to test you.”

“What’s the difference?”

I don’t have a good answer for that.

Jake puts down his pencil. “Is Granny like a final boss in a video game?”

We both turn to look at him.

“What?” I ask.

“A final boss. You know-the big challenge at the end that you have to beat to win the game. The one that’s really hard but if you study their powers and figure out their weakness, you can beat them.” He looks between us like we’re the ones being slow here. “Is Granny Kate like that?”

“That’s…” I pause. “Not inaccurate.”

“Okay.” He picks up his tablet from beside his plate. “What’s Granny’s full name?”

“Katherine Hale. Why?”

“I’m doing research.” His fingers are already moving across the screen. “You have to know your enemy before you fight them. Sun Tzu said that.”

“She’s not your enemy, Jake.”

“Not yet.” He doesn’t look up. “But if she’s testing Mom, then she’s testing me too. And I don’t fail tests.”

This kid…

Sometimes I wonder what strange food Sabrina ate during her pregnancy to give birth to him. Because such a precocious child is sure as hell not a result of Dustin’s genes.

Sabrina catches my eye over Jake’s head. There’s something in her expression I can’t quite read-not fear, not anger. Something between nervousness and uncertainty.

“What should I wear?” she asks.

“Something professional. She respects competence.”

“Should I bring anything?”

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