The tears filled Emily’s eyes. She abruptly removed her hand from hers. “You knew that? You had a baby with her and you never told me? His voice broke, loud enough to catch his eyes.
Mark held his hand to Jacob, but I stepped back. “No,” I said dryly. “You can’t play the father anymore. He doesn’t know you. He doesn’t need you. »
Jacob pulled on my coat, confused. “Mom? »
I knelt down and kissed him on the forehead. “All is well, my heart. »
When I looked up, Mark was crying – real tears. Emily, meanwhile, was trembling with fury. She pushed him in a broken voice. “You destroyed everything. You destroyed us! »
And at that moment, I realized how fragile their “perfect” marriage was. Emily rushed, leaving him alone in the crowd. He stopped her, but she didn’t turn around.
Then his gaze turned to me again, the air irritated by regret. “Please, Claire. Let me be a part of his life.”
I’ll be Jacob stronger. “You made your choice. Don’t expect me to clean up the rubble. »
And on that, I left holding my son’s hand, leaving Mark standing in the rubble of his own creation.
But it didn’t stop there. In the weeks that followed, Mark began to appear everywhere – in front of my apartment, near the hospital, and even once at Jacob’s daycare. He was not threatening, just relentless. Each time, he begged the same thing: a chance to know his son.
At first I refused. Jacob was everything to me, and I wasn’t going to let the man who broke me near him. Mark did not give up. He sent letters, emails, and even late-night voicemails, filled with guilt and nostalgia. The man who had once moved away so easily now clung to the hope of being a father.
I later learned from my mother that Emily had left him. She couldn’t stand the truth: Jacob existed, Mark’s heart had never been fully his. In his eyes, my son was living proof of a love that refused to die.
One evening, after I bordered Jacob, I found another letter slipped under my door. The writing was trembling.
“I know I failed with you two. I see it in my dreams every night. I can’t go back, but please, Claire, let me try. »
I wanted to tear it apart, but a part of me couldn’t.
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