CHAPTER 4 — The Choice
The next morning, Ethan canceled every meeting.
His board of directors was stunned.
The stock market wasn't.
Reed Global survived one day without its CEO.
His son could not survive another childhood without his father.
He found Claire packing her suitcase in the servants' quarters.
"I've already prepared my resignation."
Ethan looked at the letter.
"Why?"
"The other women."
"They'll think I manipulated everything."
"No."
Claire smiled sadly.
"They'll think worse."
She looked toward Oliver's room.
"If I stay..."
"He'll become even more attached."
"And one day you'll marry."
"Someone else will become his mother."
"I don't want him to lose another one."
The words shattered Ethan's heart.
"You've spent two years preparing to leave the child who loves you."
Claire nodded.
"That's what mothers do."
"They put the child first."
Ethan couldn't answer.
At that moment Oliver ran into the hallway.
He looked from Ethan...
to Claire...
then reached for both of them.
One tiny hand grabbed Ethan.
The other held Claire.
The child smiled.
As if the answer had always been obvious.
Ethan slowly knelt beside his son.
"You don't have to leave."
Claire shook her head.
"I do."
"No."
Ethan finally said the words that had taken two years to learn.
"I don't need someone to become my wife."
"I need someone who has already become my son's family."
Claire stared at him.
Not because he had confessed his feelings.
Because for the first time...
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he wasn't speaking as a billionaire.
He was speaking as a father.
