Ethan was ready to become a father until a nurse threw him out of the delivery room, saying he wasn’t the baby’s biological father. Ethan is shocked and unable to comprehend her words. But what about his wife? And the baby? Ethan must make impossible choices as a shocking revelation changes everything….
Four years. That’s how long I loved her. That’s how long Julia was my entire world.
And over the past nine months, that love had only grown bigger than life.
A smiling pregnant woman | Source: Midjourney
From the moment we saw the little blue plus sign, I was in awe of my wife. The way she held her stomach when she thought no one was paying attention. How she hummed to our baby all day long.
And how she cried at commercials and blamed it on hormones. The way she laughed when I read her parenting books with the seriousness of a man studying for the bar exam, multiple highlighters included.
This was supposed to be our big moment. The one we’d been waiting for as we stepped into the role of parents.
Books and highlighters on a table | Source: Midjourney
“We’re going to be those parents who love their children more than their lives,” Julia said one evening as she sat on the couch, clutching her stomach.
“I’m not sure we’ll make it,” I said. “But we’ll do our best.”
“Ethan,” she said softly. “There’s no better father I could want for this little one.”
A pregnant woman holding her stomach | Source: Midjourney
I had been by Julia’s side throughout her hospital stay, never leaving her side except to rush home for a shower or make a quick run to the store when she needed something. We had spent the last week in the hospital because Julia’s blood pressure kept dropping dangerously low. It was the safest place we could be.
The nurses teased me about it, especially one of them, Maggie.
“Aren’t you sick of Ethan yet?” she would say to my wife jokingly. “Tell me if you want me to lock him out.”
Julia started laughing, her laughter filling the room.
A woman in a hospital bed | Source: Midjourney
“Never!” she said. “Who’s going to bring me my chocolate-covered strawberries? I can’t believe they’re one of the last things this little guy wants.”
“Your husband will probably buy a chocolate fountain,” Maggie said with a laugh.
Maggie felt like a big sister, always ready to help us, always there with a smile.
Until that evening.
A bowl of strawberries and melted chocolate | Source: Midjourney
I must have passed out from exhaustion. I don’t even remember falling asleep, but when I woke up, the room was empty and I heard frantic voices outside.
“It’s time! The baby has to come out now! I need someone to monitor his blood pressure. Now go! Get moving!”
I jumped up, my heart pounding, and ran to the delivery room. My wife was already under anesthesia, her face pale but peaceful.
This wasn’t what was planned. We were supposed to have a natural birth. I just wanted to go up to her and squeeze her hand really hard.
An empty hospital room | Source: Midjourney
“Get out of here, Ethan!”
I froze. Maggie stood between my wife and me, her eyes blazing.
“What? Why? Maggie, it’s me!” I said breathlessly. “I’m her husband. I’ve been part of the birth plan from the beginning! You know that!”
But his face did not soften.
A nurse with hands on hips | Source: Midjourney
“Only the baby’s real father can stay!” she shouted.
“What ?”
“You have to go,” she insisted.
A shocked man | Source: Midjourney
She pushed me away. She really pushed me! The woman who had laughed with me, reassured me, and treated me like family was kicking me out of my wife’s labor.
“What does that mean?!” I roared.
But before I could demand an answer, the doors closed behind me.
A shocked man in a hospital corridor | Source: Midjourney
I paced the hallway. My hands were shaking. My head was pounding.
It must have been a mistake.
My wife had never given me a reason to doubt her.
Never !
Or had she? Maybe I brushed it off?
No. No. It was crazy. This is Julia we were talking about. The woman who stopped on the street to pet every stray dog or cat. She threw bread crumbs on our back porch for the birds. She would never cheat on me.
A pregnant woman and a dog on a sidewalk | Source: Midjourney
Maggie must have misunderstood something. Or maybe there was some kind of…
The doors burst open and Maggie stepped out, her face unreadable, blood on her blouse.
My heart was pounding in my chest. Something was wrong.
“How is she?” I asked, my voice hoarse. “And how is he?!”
A nurse standing in a corridor | Source: Midjourney
Maggie didn’t answer right away. She didn’t even want to meet my gaze.
Then she broke my heart into a thousand pieces.
“I’m sorry, Ethan,” she said. “There were complications. Your wife didn’t survive.”
The whole world collapsed on me at that moment.
A sound came out of my throat, something broken, something that didn’t sound human.
A frustrated man | Source: Midjourney
“No,” I whispered. “No, no, no!”
She reached out to me, but I staggered back.
“No!” I shouted.
But Maggie wasn’t finished.
“Your baby survived.”
I choked on my breath.
My baby. Our baby.
A man leaning against a wall | Source: Midjourney
But when I looked back at Maggie’s face, something dark curled in my stomach. I wanted to lash out. I wanted to hurt her.
“Tell me why you said that. In the delivery room.”
Maggie swallowed, and for a moment she looked almost ashamed.
Then she said the words that ruined me.
“Listen, last night I overheard Julia talking to a friend. She said you weren’t the baby’s biological father.”
A nurse holds his head | Source: Midjourney
Everything inside me stopped.
“That’s not true. It can’t be true.”
“Sir…”
“That’s not true!” I shouted again.
But I knew. I already knew.
Because when I left the hospital last night, rushing home to shower and bring Julia a book, he was at the hospital.
“Don’t rush, E,” Ryan had said. “I’ll wait with Julia until you get back.”
A smiling man standing in a hospital corridor | Source: Midjourney
Ryan. My best friend.
I should have gone to see the baby, I should have asked to see Julia’s body first. But I wanted to know the truth. I wanted to know if Ryan and Julia had had an affair and if the baby was his. So I called him.
“Is this true?” I asked as Maggie walked away. “Ryan, I know about Julia. Is this true?”
Silence.
“I’m not raising this child, Ethan,” he said simply.
I almost dropped the phone.
A man talking on the phone | Source: Midjourney
“You… What?”
“I don’t care, mate,” he said nonchalantly. “I never wanted this. You deal with it.”
A cold laugh escaped me, making me jump. What was I becoming? My hands clenched so tightly I thought my phone was going to snap in two.
“How long, Ryan?”
He sighed. A casual sigh. As if I was taking up too much of his time. As if I was exhausting him. As if he couldn’t be bothered to care.
A man talking on the phone | Source: Midjourney
There wasn’t even an ounce of guilt.
“Two years,” he said.
“Julia is dead. She died in childbirth.”
I hung up.
“Sir?” called another nurse, smiling as if all was right with the world. “Would you like to meet your boy?”
A smiling nurse | Source: Midjourney
I followed her to the nursery, my heart growing heavier with every step. How was I going to face this baby?
I held my son for the first time that evening.
He was so small. He wasn’t aware of everything that had happened. His little fingers curled around mine, his breathing was soft.
He was so perfect.
Noah.
A baby in a bassinet | Source: Midjourney
“I want to name him Noah,” Julia had said one night. “And maybe he’ll love all animals, like his mom.”
I should have felt angry. But I didn’t.
Instead, I felt lost.
I spent hours sitting with him. I was thinking.
A man holding a baby | Source: Midjourney
Could I raise another man’s child? Could I look at him every day and not see the betrayal? What if he grows up to be a carbon copy of Ryan? Will he grow up to hate me if he finds out?
I didn’t know what to do.
So, I called my father.
I said, “I need you.” “Please.”
I hadn’t cried in front of him since I was a child, but when I saw him, I broke down.
A man standing in a hospital corridor | Source: Midjourney
He hugged me tightly, as if he too was afraid to let go.
“My son, I am so sorry,” he said.
I stepped back, shaking my head. I was frantic, as if the panic had been kept at bay, but with my father present, I let myself lose control.
“I don’t know if I can do it, Dad,” I said.
My father took my face in his hands, his eyes reddened.
A father and son hug | Source: Midjourney
“Do you think I love you, Ethan? That I’ve always loved you more than anything in the world?”
Except for his car, of course, I believed him.
“Yes, I believe so,” I said.
He inhaled sharply.
“Then I have to tell you something. You’re not my biological son. Your mother and I adopted you when you were only a few months old. Mom and I tried to have children of our own, but her body couldn’t carry babies. I almost lost her once too. That’s when we decided to adopt. So our family would be whole.”
A smiling little boy | Source: Midjourney
“What?” I asked numbly.
“I wanted you to know this now, so you’d understand. Blood doesn’t make a father. Love does. This child is completely innocent in this world, Ethan. He didn’t ask for any of this. All he needs is unconditional love. You may not be his biological father, but you are his chosen father.”
Something in my chest broke.
I hugged him so tight that neither of us could breathe.
“I’ll raise him,” I said. “I promise you, Dad. I’ll do my best.”
And I meant it.
Close-up of an elderly man | Source: Midjourney
We buried Julia when Noah was three days old.
My father wanted me to wait, to spend at least a week with Noah before having to make funeral arrangements, but I couldn’t wait.
“Dad, I love her, but she betrayed me. And I… I can’t focus on Noah knowing we still have to plan his mother’s funeral.”
“Then leave everything to me,” he said. “I’ll take care of everything. You just show up.”
Flowers on a coffin | Source: Midjourney
A week later, my phone rang, and I received the news that changed everything once again.
It had been a long week, and I’d barely gotten a good night’s sleep. Noah was perfect, of course. But he was a fussy baby. And maybe it had everything to do with Julia’s absence, but as soon as the sun went down, Noah’s lungs opened wider with his cries.
But now this phone call was from the hospital.
A phone on a table | Source: Midjourney
“This is Dr. Patel from the hospital. I have some news regarding your son’s post-delivery tests.”
I frown. What’s next?
“Maggie asked that we do a paternity test.”
It’s true. Before leaving the hospital, Maggie took a swab from my cheek. And Noah’s. I hadn’t held out any hope, but now…
“Tell me!” I said. Rudely. I didn’t mean to be.
A man talking on the phone | Source: Midjourney
A break.
“It turns out you’re the father.”
I almost spit out my coffee.
“What ?”
“The paternity results are back. I’m sorry for the misunderstanding.”
My knees buckled and I fell back onto the couch.
I was ready. I had already agreed to raise another man’s child.
A doctor talking on the phone | Source: Midjourney
But he was mine. He had always been mine. That little boy was just me…
Tears burned my eyes. I looked at my son, his tiny body stretching like a newborn’s.
And for the first time in what seemed like years, I smiled properly.
Noah was mine. And I was his.
And my son would always be my first priority.
A smiling little boy | Source: Midjourney
Here’s another story : Amber had given up on love, but sparks fly when she meets Steve, an old friend of her father’s, at a barbecue. As their whirlwind romance leads to marriage, everything seems perfect. But on their wedding night, Amber discovers Steve has a disturbing secret that will change everything.
This work is inspired by real events and people, but has been fictionalized for creative purposes. Names, characters, and details have been changed to protect privacy and enhance the story. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, or to actual events is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
The author and publisher make no claims regarding the accuracy of events or character portrayals and are not responsible for any misinterpretations. This story is provided “as is,” and the opinions expressed are those of the characters and do not reflect the views of the author or publisher.
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