Claudia let out a hollow laugh.
"York," she said, her voice laced with bitter sarcasm, "did you want me to bring this child into the world just so they could end up like me? Ignored, controlled, and taken for granted? Forced to swallow every bit of hurt while watching you dedicate yourself day after day to that mother and son?"
York's composure completely broke. Tears streamed from his bloodshot eyes.
"Claudia," he choked out, "Ann and I were never really together!"
His voice was a low, trembling rasp. He looked her in the eye and confessed, word by painful word, "Ethan is Ann's child with her ex-husband. He is not my biological son."
Tears welled in Claudia's own eyes, spilling unbidden down her pale cheeks.
She smiled, a tragic, broken thing. "York, we've known each other for over twenty years. We've been married for three. I would have given you my heart on a platter. And yet, for Ann, you were willing to be a father to another man's son."
Her voice broke. "You confessing now doesn't change a thing. It only shows me how cheap, how worthless, how completely unimportant I must have been to you."
Darkness swam at the edges of her vision, and she slowly lost consciousness.
—
When Claudia woke again, she was back in Capital City. Back home.
She saw York slumped beside her, asleep, his hand still holding hers. She struggled to sit up, looking for her phone.
Her movement woke him. In just a day and a night, he seemed to have aged years. A dark stubble shadowed his jaw, and his eyes were still red and swollen. He took her phone from his pocket and carefully handed it to her.
His voice was hoarse with pain. "I called Gideon and got you a few days off. You should rest and recover."

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