Chapter 13 #2
I’d tried handling this crisis by myself, and look where it had gotten me. Jack had learned his lesson about secrets the hard way. Maybe it was time I learned from his mistakes instead of making my own.
I scrolled through my contacts with shaking hands and called Jack.
Jack answered on the first ring. “Sam! Jesus Christ, we’ve been trying to reach you for hours. Are you okay?”
“Is Chloe there?” The question came out raw, desperate.
“Chloe? No. Sam, what’s going on? Harper’s been losing her mind trying to reach both of you.”
“She’s gone.” My voice cracked. “Chloe’s gone. She left a note. She thinks,” I couldn’t finish the sentence.
“Slow down. Where are you right now?”
“At home. I came home, and she wasn’t here. Just a note saying she understands I need to choose Leo over her, that I should be moved out by the time she gets back.” The words were tumbling out faster now. “Her phone’s off. She arranged emergency coverage for the clinic. She’s just… gone.”
There was a pause, then muffled voices as Jack spoke to someone — Harper, probably. When he came back on the line, his voice was steady, calm. “Okay. Listen to me. We’re coming over right now.”
“You don’t have to–”
“Yes, we do. This is exactly the kind of crisis you don’t handle alone.” Jack’s voice was firm. “We’ll be there in ten minutes. Don’t do anything stupid before we get there.”
After he hung up, I turned on the kitchen lights, blinking against the sudden brightness. The clock on the wall read 6:15 PM. I’d been sitting here for nearly six hours.
Six hours of replaying every moment, every lie, every choice that had led to this. Six hours of staring at that note and trying to understand how I’d destroyed everything that mattered.
Jack arrived with Harper and a bottle of whiskey, which told me exactly how bad he thought the situation was.
“Where is she?” Harper asked immediately, looking around. “Is she upstairs?”
I stared at her. “What? No, she’s gone. I told Jack—”
“But she promised me she’d stay and talk to you.” Harper’s face went pale. “She said she was home waiting for you.”
“When did you talk to her?”
“This afternoon. Around noon.” Harper sank into one of the kitchen chairs, looking devastated.
“She was frantic, Sam. Completely falling apart. She called you ‘Sean’ several times. She wasn’t listening to anything I said, just kept interrupting, talking about how you’d been lying and how you were moving out this weekend. ”
“Why would Chloe think I’m moving out?” My voice rose.
“Because Jenna apparently told her that.” Harper’s expression was grim. “She went to Chloe’s clinic this morning with Leo.”
The room tilted. “She what?”
“I tried to tell Chloe it didn’t make sense,” Harper continued.
The words burst out of me, anger and desperation mixing into something ugly. “If you knew she was falling apart, why didn’t you—”
“Watch your tone.” Jack’s voice was sharp as he straightened from the counter, his body language shifting into something protective. “Harper tried to help. Don’t take this out on her.”
The rebuke hit me like cold water. I looked at Harper’s face, saw the worry and guilt there, and felt shame crash over me. “I’m sorry.” I sank into a chair, running my hands through my hair. “Harper, I’m so sorry. I know you tried. I just—”
“I know,” Harper said quietly. “You’re scared, hurting, and looking for someone to blame. Chloe lied to me. She told me she’d hear you out. And then she hung up and left.” Harper’s voice cracked slightly.
Jack leaned against the counter, his expression dark. “This Jenna deliberately sabotaged your relationship. She went to Chloe’s clinic, manipulated the situation to make it look like you were choosing her over Chloe, and then Chloe ran before you had a chance to explain the truth. But why?”
“Jenna came to see me this morning,” I admitted, the pieces clicking into horrible place.
“She wanted me to marry her. I refused.” I pulled out my wallet, extracting the folded paternity test results.
“The test came back yesterday. 99.9% probability. Leo is mine. I had it all ready to show Chloe this afternoon. But Jenna…” I couldn’t finish the sentence.
“Jenna removed the competition,” Harper said quietly. “If she couldn’t convince you to choose her, she’d make sure Chloe was out of the picture so you’d end up with her by default.”
Jenna had played me perfectly. I’d been so focused on managing the situation, on keeping Chloe from getting hurt, that I’d created the perfect opening for Jenna to swoop in. “I had it all planned,” I said, my voice hollow. “I was going to apologize, explain everything. But Jenna got to her first.”
“And Chloe ran,” Harper said softly. “Because that’s what she does when things get overwhelming.”
“But I’m not Sean! I wasn’t cheating, I was just—”
“Lying,” Jack said bluntly. “You were lying, Sam. And from Chloe’s perspective, especially after whatever poison Jenna fed her, it looks the same.”
I couldn’t argue with that. Because he was right. “So what do I do?” My voice cracked. “How do I fix this when she won’t even answer my calls?”
Jack leaned forward. “Sam, you need to find Jenna and figure out exactly what she told Chloe. You need to know what you’re fighting against.”
“I know where she is.” I was already reaching for my keys when Jack caught my arm.
“Sam,” he said carefully, “you need to think about Leo. If you show up at Jenna’s motel room now, angry and confrontational, that’s not fair to him. Confronting his mother when he’s there isn’t going to help anyone.”
“But she spoke to Chloe–”
“You’re not thinking rationally,” Harper interrupted gently. “We’ve all tried calling Chloe multiple times - there’s nothing more we can do tonight. You need to take a breath and think this through. Emma’s already at Jack’s parents for the night. We’re staying with you.”
“I can’t just sit here doing nothing while Chloe thinks I don’t want her.”
“You’re not doing nothing. You’re regrouping.
” Harper’s voice was firm but kind. “You can talk to Jenna tomorrow. But right now? Right now, you’re exhausted, you’re emotional, and you’re not thinking straight.
The last thing Leo needs is to see his father having an angry confrontation with his mother in a motel room. That doesn’t help anyone.”
Jack nodded in agreement. “Harper’s right. I made plenty of mistakes trying to fix everything when I was running on panic and no sleep. Don’t repeat my errors, Sam. Let us help you think this through.”
I sank back into the couch, my hands shaking. “I just need to fix this. I need to make her understand—”
“Sam.” Jack’s voice was sharper now, cutting through my spiraling thoughts. “Stop. Just stop for a second and listen to yourself.”
I looked up at him, confused by his tone.
“This isn’t you,” Jack said, his expression a mix of concern and frustration.
“The Sam I know doesn’t panic. He doesn’t lie to the woman he loves.
He doesn’t hide from difficult conversations.
” He leaned forward, his voice intense. “You’re the guy who told me that secrets destroy relationships. So what the hell happened to you?”
The words landed hard. “Jack—”
“No, he’s right.” Harper’s voice was gentle but firm.
“Sam, when Jack was with Madison, you were the one who stayed calm. You were the voice of reason. You told him exactly what he needed to hear, even when it was hard. You showed up for me when he couldn’t.
You were clear-headed and rational and strong.
” She paused. “So why didn’t you tell Chloe about Leo the minute you found out? ”
I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.
Why hadn’t I? It seemed so obvious now, so simple.
Of course, I should have told her immediately.
“I…” My voice broke. “I panicked. When Jenna texted me that photo at the restaurant, when I saw Leo’s face and knew immediately he was mine, I just… I couldn’t think straight.”
“So you lied to Chloe instead?” Jack’s tone wasn’t accusatory, just genuinely confused. “You, who lectured me about honesty for months?”
I thought about all those conversations with Jack.
How clear everything had seemed when it was his marriage on the line, not mine.
How easily I’d seen the path forward when I wasn’t the one standing in the wreckage.
I’d given him advice like I was reading from a textbook on relationships, confident and certain, never imagining I’d end up in the same position — except worse, because I’d known better and still fucked it up anyway.
“It’s different when it’s happening to you!
” The words burst out of me, raw and desperate.
“When it’s someone else’s crisis, you can see everything clearly.
You can give good advice because you’re not the one terrified of losing everything.
But when it’s your own life falling apart?
When you’re standing there thinking about how to tell the woman you love that you have a four-year-old son you didn’t know about?
” I ran my hands through my hair. “I couldn’t see anything clearly.
All I could think was that I needed to have answers before I told her.
That if I could just figure everything out first, I could present it to her in a way that wouldn’t destroy us. ”
Harper’s expression softened with understanding. “Like how I negotiate million-dollar deals on behalf of clients, but I can’t negotiate anything for myself because I’m emotionally invested in the outcome?”
“Exactly.” I looked at her gratefully. “At work, you have time to strategize, to plan, to think through every angle. But this? Jenna showed up out of nowhere. Every day there was a new crisis - Leo needed things, Jenna was running out of money, the paternity test was pending. I had no time to think, no space to plan. I just kept reacting.”
“And lying,” Jack said quietly. “To the woman you were planning to marry.”