Chapter 86: Would He Ever Come Back?
I walked through the garden for a few moments, looking around the bigger hedges and bushes, trying to find Ethan, but I didn‘t see him anywhere.
It was like he had vanished from my life again.
With a hand over my baby, I walked back home and went inside, closing the door behind me.
It seemed so lonely inside now. Not long ago, Soren and I had been sitting at the table eating dinner, laughing, and having a good conversation about our day. Now, the entire house seemed still and quiet.
“What was Ethan even doing here?” | asked myself aloud. I had no idea.
He said he‘d come there to see me, but why?
How did he even figure out where I was?
I wanted to talk to Ethan again. I wanted to find him and make him sit down and answer a thousand questions.
But that wasn‘t going to happen.
I lay backward on my bed and stared up at the ceiling, wondering if I‘d ever even see him again. There was a chance he would just go back home. Perhaps all he wanted was to see me, and now that he had, now that he knew that I was alive, he would just turn around and head right back to Madalynn‘s open arms.
Madalynn… and her ring.
I decided there was nothing more I could do, so I got ready for bed.
However, In my restless dreams, I kept seeing Ethan again but not being able to speak to him.
When I woke up, I couldn‘t stop thinking about him.
Seraphine was there to check my vitals, and Lola was tidying up the cottage. We were all friends, but I knew | couldn‘t talk to them about this. I couldn‘t risk them finding out the truth about my past.
Thad left that all behind.
Or at least, I thought I had.
“Ro?” Seraphine asked as she put her stethoscope back in her midwife bag. “Are you okay? I‘m done checking the baby, and you usually ask me a thousand questions. Today you‘re just staring off into space.”
“Oh. I‘m sorry.” I shook my head, smiling at her. “I guess I‘m just distracted this morning.”
the twinkle in her eye that she was prying. “I know you had dinner
at her. “We‘re just friends,” I reminded her. I ran
“It
know how that made me feel. Was I
fuzzy form of a man next to me came into
was next to me. Soren would be so supportive.
never easy, but you‘ll be just fine. I‘ll be there with you every step of the way. Do you have
a few times, trying to get the images out of my mind. “Oh,
you have questions, let me know. Your baby is healthy, and you‘re young and strong. I‘m sure this will be a perfectly normal birth where
her bag. I knew she had some other patients to see that day. I had other
business, and I needed to check the
blanket that I needed to hurry
outside to pick some flowers. At least, that was what I told myself I was doing… but honestly, I was
was looking for
own home. How had he managed to reduce me to this state again? I had come so far, only to be thrust back into this
was like a teenage girl, pining after a boy.
times, but he didn‘t answer.
at me as I came in. “Do
wonderful. Thank you,” I told her,
he even bothered to come here if he wasn‘t going to talk to
thanked her as
to set the vase on a table. It slipped
floor, spilling
no!” I said as Lola also cried
Ro. Let me get a broom and
the tools she needed to clean up my mess, and I
Lola returned, I reached for the broom. “Let
waving me off. “You could hurt yourself.
I felt awful that I’d created such a mess for her to have to clean
just wasn‘t thinking straight. I was
as
and I still didn‘t see
the next day in the garden, looking for any sign of him while I pretended to prune the trees, but I didn‘t see any trace. No footprints, no lingering scent, no evidence that he‘d
that perhaps he hadn‘t actually come
just needed to get on with my life. Whatever it was that had brought Ethan back into my life for those few fleeting moments, he‘d gotten it. Now that
sat in the baby‘s nursery, sewing the blanket, staring at nothing as Seraphine organized the drawers of clothing
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