Mom, Don't Cry! Here comes a new Daddy! novel Chapter 136

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Chapter 121-1

(Ethan’s POV)

I wait until Sabrina and Jake are in the car before I turn back to the restaurant.

Gran is still at the table. Everyone else has scattered-cousins making excuses about ea meetings, executives suddenly remembering prior commitments. The dinner ended the w funeral ends. People couldn’t leave fast enough.

Only Gran remains. Sitting at the head of that long table like a queen surveying the wreck of her court.

I walk back inside.

She sees me coming and sets down her wine glass.

“Ethan. I thought you’d left.”

“We need to talk.”

“Sit.”

“I’d rather stand.”

Her eyebrow rises. “Very well.”

I plant my hands on the back of the chair I’d been sitting in. Try to keep my voice level. Fail.

“You were cruel to her.”

Gran doesn’t blink. “I asked her questions. About her background. Her knowledge. Her suitability.”

“You humiliated her. In front of the entire family. Made her feel small and inadequate and not good enough.”

“If she felt that way, perhaps it’s because she recognizes certain truths about her position.”

“Her position?” The words come out harsh. Loud enough that a waiter glances over nervously. “Her position is as my fiancée. The woman I’m going to marry. The mother of my son.”

“She’s the mother of another man’s son. Let’s be accurate about-”

“Jake is my son!” I’m shouting now. Don’t care who hears. “I don’t care about biology. I don’t

Chapter 121-1

care that Dustin Reed’s name is on a birth certificate somewhere. Jake is mine. Sabrina it mine. And you don’t get to tear them down because they don’t fit your perfect image of wh a Hale family should look like.”

Gran stands slowly. Walks around the table until she’s standing in front of me.

“I raised you better than this. Better than to shout in public. Better than to lose your composure over a woman.”

“She’s not just a woman. She’s the woman I love.”

“Love.” She says it like the word is something distasteful. “You’re thirty-two years old, Ethan Successful. Powerful. The heir to everything I built. And you’re willing to throw that away fo what? A divorced woman with baggage who brings nothing to this family besides complications?”

“She brings everything that matters!”

“Such as?”

“Such as she makes me happy! She makes me want to come home at the end of the day instead of staying late at the office. She challenges me. Calls me on my bullshit. Sees me a a person instead of the CEO of Hale Global.” My voice drops. “She’s brilliant and kind and perfect for me. Why can’t you see that?”

Gran studies me for a long moment. “I see a divorced woman clinging to your wealth and status. Using her child as leverage to secure a future she couldn’t build on her own.”

The accusation lands like a physical blow.

“That’s not who she is.”

“Isn’t it? She lost her job. Lost her husband. Lost her stability. And then suddenly- conveniently-she meets a billionaire CEO who happens to fall in love with her and her son.” Gran shakes her head. “I didn’t build Hale Global to be the wedding dress of an opportunist, Ethan. And I won’t stand by while you’re taken advantage of.”

“She’s not taking advantage of me!”

“Then what is she doing? What does she bring to your life that you couldn’t find elsewhere?”

I open my mouth. Close it.

Because the answer is so simple and so complicated at the same time.

She brings joy. Laughter. The feeling of a warmth I lost since my mom’s death.

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