Chapter 1
"My wife told me she was going to the hospital, but an hour later I saw her eating steak with a man I’d never seen before. I walked up to their table and said, “So the hospital is here now?”
Rachel’s fork froze halfway to her mouth.
The man across from her slowly turned toward me.
“James,” she whispered.
I had been driving home through downtown Denver when I spotted her through the restaurant window.
She was supposed to be getting test results at St. Joseph Hospital.
Instead, there was a $70 steak in front of her and a bottle of wine between them.
“Who is he?”
Rachel stood up.
“Please, not here.”
That answer was enough for me.
I looked at the stranger.
“You know she’s married?”
He barely had time to stand before I punched him.
He stumbled backward into another table.
Rachel screamed.
“James! Stop!”
Restaurant staff rushed toward us.
The man wiped blood from his mouth but didn’t swing back.
He just stared at Rachel.
“You didn’t tell him?”
My stomach dropped.
“Tell me what?”
Rachel grabbed my arm.
“Let’s go outside.”
I pulled away.
“No. You lied about going to the hospital, so you can explain it right here.”
The stranger reached into his jacket.
I thought he was going for his phone.
Instead, he placed a photograph on the table.
It showed Rachel holding a newborn baby.
I recognized the hospital blanket immediately.
It was the same hospital where our 8-year-old son, Ethan, had been born.
But I wasn’t the man standing beside her in the picture.
He was.
I looked at Rachel.
“What the hell is this?”
She started crying.
The stranger quietly said, “I told you this day would come.”
I grabbed the photograph.
On the back was a date.
Three days before Rachel had ever called me and said our son had been born early.
My hands started shaking.
Then the man placed a second envelope beside my untouched steak.
Across the front were the words: PATERNITY RESULTS — ETHAN MILLER.
May you like
Rachel lunged for it.
“James, don’t open that.”
