“You’re Claire.”
“Yes.”
“Jack’s wife.”
I nodded.
“Can I see Ethan?”
Denise invited me inside.
A little boy was sitting on the floor, carefully building a train track.
When he looked up, I immediately noticed something familiar in his expression.
“Ethan?”
He nodded.
“Jack showed me your picture,” he said.
My heart tightened.
“He did?”
“And Lucy’s.”
“What did he tell you about us?”
“That Lucy likes dinosaurs.”
I smiled despite myself.
“She does.”
He also knew that I made pancakes on Sundays.
It was clear that Jack had talked about our family more than I had realized“Did Jack visit you often?”
Denise nodded.
“He cared about Ethan very much.”
“As his father?”
“I don’t know.”
That answer left me more confused than before.
I needed another explanation.
The next day, I contacted an older woman named Mrs. Bennett, whose name had appeared in several of the records.
She agreed to meet me.
When we sat down, she placed an old photograph on the table.
Two young boys stood together.
“Which one is Jack?”
She pointed to the taller boy.
“And the other?”
“Daniel.”
I stared at the photograph.
“Who was Daniel?”
“Jack’s brother.”
I could barely speak.
“Jack didn’t have a brother.”
“He didn’t know that he did.”
She explained that Jack and Daniel had been separated when they were young after a family tragedy. Their records became complicated, and the brothers eventually grew up apart without knowing where the other had gone.
Jack had discovered the connection much later.
“Did he find Daniel?”
Mrs. Bennett looked down.
“He tried.”
“What happened?”
“Daniel had already passed away.”
I thought about Ethan.
“Then Ethan…”
“Ethan was Daniel’s son.”
Everything suddenly made sense.
Jack hadn’t been hiding another relationship from me.
He had been searching for a piece of his own family history.
He had discovered that the brother he never knew existed had left behind a child. Instead of walking away, Jack had decided to help Ethan and learn what he could about the boy’s circumstances.
That was why Mara had been helping him.
