Mom, Don't Cry! Here comes a new Daddy! novel Chapter 74

Chapter 55 1

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Chapter 55-1

(Ethan’s POV)

I’ve been avoiding Sabrina ever since she joined the company.

Not because I want to. God knows I don’t want to. Every day I have to stop myself from finding

excuses to visit the fifteenth floor, from “accidentally” running into her in the cafeteria, from calling

her into my office for some made-up reason.

But I promised her. I promised she wouldn’t see my face at work. That she could prove to herself- and everyone else-that her success is based on her own talent and hard work, not on any

connection to me.

So I stay away even when all I want to do is go there and ask how her day is going.

I get updates, of course. Sarah sends me weekly reports on the creative team’s progress, and Sabrina’s name is always at the top. Her campaigns are brilliant, Sharp. Exactly the kind of innovative thinking Hale Global needs.

She’s thriving. Which should make me happy.

Instead, it just makes me ache for what I can’t have.

I thought I could handle her rejection. Thought I could respect her decision to keep me at arm’s length and move on with my life with the same cold and decisive determination I’ve always overcome every obstacle in my life this far.

But then there’s Jake.

My chest tightens every time I think about that kid. Which is constantly. Obsessively. In a way that should probably concern me but doesn’t.

I’ve grown more attached to the kid than I ever expected, than I ever want to admit to anyone,

including myself.

I can’t explain it. Can’t rationalize it away with logic or reason where this feeling came from.

The kid isn’t even mine. And that’s saying a lot, because I used to hate kids. Their greedy needy

nature always ticked me off the wrong way.

But Jake…

The truth is simple and undeniable: I miss him when I don’t see him.

I miss his endless chatter about dinosaurs and art projects. Miss the way he calls me Mr. Jason

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* Chapter 55-1

like I’m someone worth looking up to. Miss how his little face lights up when he figures something, out, when he’s proud of himself.

I miss being the person he turns to when he needs help. When he wants to share something

exciting.

I miss feeling like I matter to someone in a way that has nothing to do with my bank account or my

company or my last name.

My phone sits on my desk, the screen dark. But I know if I unlock it, Jake’s picture will stare back at me. The one I saved as my screensaver months ago when I first started following his account.

A five-year-old kid with messy hair and paint-stained fingers, holding up a drawing of a T-Rex with the biggest, proudest smile I’ve ever seen.

In the last few days, I’ve looked at this picture more times than the last four weeks combined, which is shocking. Because every time my phone rang for a business or personal call, his picture

was the first thing I saw.

I was tempted to delete it. One time, I even went to the gallery, but when I selected the image, my finger just wouldn’t move. So I never ended up clicking that delete button.

In the end, I reasoned I’m Ethan Hale.

Being indecisive and conflicted isn’t my style of doing things.

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