Chapter 7: The Truth She Could Not Escape

Three days later, the paternity test was scheduled.

Yvette fought it until the very last minute.

Her attorney called mine twice, first claiming that the test would cause her unnecessary emotional distress, then arguing that the matter should remain private until after the child was born.

My answer never changed.

If she wanted to attach my name to her child, then she would prove the child was mine.

That morning, I arrived at the private medical center with my attorney and two members of the White family's security team.

I wore a simple black suit.

The bruises on my face had begun to fade, but the marks around my wrists remained.

Every time I looked at them, I remembered cold water closing over my head.

It was enough to kill whatever weakness I might still have had for Yvette.

She was already waiting when I entered.

For the first time in years, Yvette looked small.

There was no expensive makeup, no perfectly styled hair, and none of the confidence she once carried into every room.

She stood the moment she saw me.

"Jayden."

I stopped several feet away.

"Where is your attorney?"

Her face fell.

"Is that really the first thing you're going to say to me?"

"We're here for a legal matter."

"We're here because you don't trust me."

I almost laughed.

"Trust you?"

She lowered her eyes.

"I know I've made mistakes."

"You keep calling them mistakes."

"What else do you want me to call them?"

"Choices."

Her lips trembled.

I continued, "You chose Ethan every time. You chose to lie to me. You chose to give him our ring. You chose to claim his child was mine. And when I tried to leave, you chose to throw me into a lake."

"I didn't think you'd actually drown!"

The words came out too quickly.

Even Yvette seemed to realize how terrible they sounded.

My attorney looked at her coldly.

I merely nodded.

"Thank you for admitting it."

Her face went white.

"Jayden, that's not what I meant."

"Save it for your attorney."

She rushed toward me.

"Please."

My guards immediately stepped between us.

Yvette stared at them in disbelief.

Once, she could walk into my arms whenever she wanted.

Now she could not even get within three feet of me.

"Tell them to move," she whispered.

"No."

"You think I'd hurt you?"

I looked at the fading rope marks on my wrists.

Yvette followed my gaze.

Her eyes filled with tears.

"I was angry."

"And now I'm careful."

Before she could answer, the doctor entered and explained the testing procedure.

Because Yvette was still early in her pregnancy, a noninvasive prenatal paternity test would compare fetal DNA found in her blood with my sample.

Yvette kept looking at me throughout the explanation.

I never looked back.

The samples were collected under legal supervision.

Chain-of-custody documents were signed.

Then we waited.

Yvette tried to follow me outside.

"Jayden, can we have lunch together?"

"No."

"Coffee? Ten minutes?"

"No."

"Then just sit with me."

I stopped.

"Why?"

She seemed startled by the question.

"Because I'm scared."

"Call Ethan."

Pain flashed across her face.

"You know he's gone."

"Then find him."

"I don't want Ethan!"

Her voice echoed through the hallway.

Several people turned toward us.

Yvette lowered her voice and stepped closer.

"I was wrong. I thought seeing him again meant something. I thought maybe I had never gotten over him. But after you left..."

She pressed a hand against her chest.

"Everything feels wrong."

"That isn't love."

"How can you tell me what I feel?"

"Because you only started feeling it when I stopped giving you what you wanted."

Her eyes widened.

"That's not true."

"Isn't it?"

I stepped closer for the first time.

"When I was lying in the hospital after giving Ethan my oxygen, you blamed me for his scandal."

"I was panicking."

"When I stood at our wedding after publicly lying to protect your reputation, you disappeared to meet him."

"Jayden—"

"When I found you giving him our wedding ring, you kicked me."

She began crying.

"Stop."

"When I told you it was over, you tried to force me to accept his child."

"Please stop."

"And when I still refused, you tried to drown me."

"I said stop!"

Yvette covered her ears.

I stared at her calmly.

"You don't get to erase what happened just because hearing it hurts."

Her shoulders shook.

For ten years, I had protected Yvette from consequences.

Whenever she made a mistake, I fixed it.

Whenever she offended someone powerful, I quietly made the problem disappear.

Whenever her company struggled, I provided another invisible safety net.

Perhaps I had helped create the woman standing before me.

She had learned that no matter what happened, Jayden would remain.

Until he didn't.

I walked away.

Two days later, the results arrived.

My attorney brought the sealed report into my office.

My father was there too.

"Open it," I said.

The attorney broke the seal and read silently.

Then he placed the document in front of me.

Probability of paternity: 0%.

I felt nothing.

No shock.

No anger.

Only confirmation.

"Send a certified copy to her attorney."

"Already prepared."

My father picked up the report.

"And Carter?"

"The court can order his test if necessary."

My attorney cleared his throat.

"That may be easier than expected."

He handed me another folder.

"Ethan Carter was detained this morning."

I raised an eyebrow.

"For what?"

"Fraud. Apparently, several people came forward after his photograph went viral. He had been borrowing money using falsified documents and promising investment opportunities that didn't exist."

My father gave a humorless laugh.

"So that's why he came back."

The attorney nodded.

"He appears to have believed Ms. Jenkins was extremely wealthy. Messages recovered from one of his devices suggest he planned to persuade her to transfer money to him before leaving the country."

I leaned back in my chair.

Yvette had destroyed ten years for a man who had seen her as nothing more than an escape route.

But that was no longer my tragedy.

"Give the evidence to the authorities if they request it," I said.

"Nothing more."

My father studied me.

"You don't want revenge?"

"He's already destroyed himself."

That afternoon, the paternity result reached Yvette.

She called me seventeen times.

I answered none of them.

Then she appeared outside the White estate.

Security informed me that she had been standing at the main gate for almost an hour.

"Send her away."

Ten minutes later, the guard called again.

"Sir, she refuses to leave."

"Call her attorney."

"She says she only wants five minutes."

I looked through the office window.

Rain had begun falling over the estate.

Somewhere beyond the trees and iron gates stood the woman I once planned to spend my entire life with.

I should have ignored her.

Instead, I told the guards to let her into the outer courtyard.

Not the house.

Never the house.

When I walked outside beneath the covered entrance, Yvette was standing in the rain.

Her hair clung to her face.

Her eyes were swollen.

She held a folder against her chest.

"Jayden."

"You have five minutes."

She flinched.

"The test came back."

"I know."

"The baby isn't yours."

"I know that too."

Tears mixed with the rain on her cheeks.

"I'm sorry."

I said nothing.

She opened the folder.

"I withdrew the spousal claim."

That surprised me slightly.

"And I signed a statement confirming that you aren't the father. My attorney will file it tomorrow."

"Good."

"That's all you have to say?"

"What do you want me to say?"

She stared at me.

"I want you to say there's still a chance."

"There isn't."

Her face crumpled.

"Jayden, I gave you blood when you were dying."

There it was.

The debt.

The chain that had kept me beside her for ten years.

I looked at her quietly.

"And I thanked you."

"That's not what I mean."

"I gave you one hundred favors because of it."

She shook her head frantically.

"I don't want the favors anymore!"

"They're finished."

"Then forget them!"

She stepped toward me.

"Forget the stupid promise. Forget Ethan. Forget the wedding. We can start over."

I almost pitied her.

"Yvette, you still don't understand."

"Then explain it to me!"

"The promise was the only reason I stayed as long as I did."

She stopped moving.

The rain seemed suddenly louder.

"What?"

"Every time you hurt me, I told myself you once saved my life."

My voice remained calm.

"Every time you chose Ethan, I counted another favor and reminded myself that eventually the debt would be paid."

Yvette stared at me as though I had struck her.

"You were counting?"

"Toward the end, yes."

"So when you gave Ethan your oxygen..."

"Ninety-eight."

Her lips trembled.

"When you lied to the reporters for me..."

"Ninety-nine."

She already knew the answer to the final one.

Still, she whispered, "And letting me have Ethan?"

"One hundred."

Yvette's knees nearly buckled.

She grabbed the gate railing for support.

"You really meant it when you said we were square."

"Yes."

For several seconds, she simply cried.

Then she reached into her coat.

My security team reacted instantly.

I raised a hand.

Yvette pulled out a small velvet box.

She opened it.

Inside was one of our wedding rings.

The one Ethan had taken.

"The police recovered it from his luggage," she whispered.

She held it toward me.

"I got it back."

I looked at the ring.

Once, I had waited almost a year for those rings to be completed.

I had imagined placing one on Yvette's finger while she smiled at me.

Now it was simply metal and stone.

"Keep it."

Her hand shook.

"But it's ours."

"No."

I looked directly into her eyes.

"It was ours."

Yvette broke down.

"Please don't be this cruel."

Cruel.

I almost smiled at the irony.

"I'm not hurting you, Yvette. I'm leaving you alone."

"That's worse."

"Then perhaps now you understand how I felt every time you chose Ethan while expecting me to wait."

She had no answer.

I turned toward the house.

"Your five minutes are over."

"Jayden!"

I stopped but did not turn.

"Do you hate me?"

Her voice was barely audible.

I thought about it.

I thought about the farmhouse.

The hospital.

The wedding.

The ring.

The lake.

Then I realized the truth.

"No."

Behind me, Yvette inhaled sharply.

"Then—"

"I don't hate you because I don't want to spend enough of my life thinking about you to hate you."

Silence.

I walked inside.

The doors closed behind me.

That evening, my father found me standing on the balcony.

"She's gone," he said.

"Good."

"She left the ring at the gate."

I glanced at him.

"Throw it away."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

My father nodded.

Then he handed me a tablet.

"There's something else you should see."

A breaking-news headline filled the screen.

Jenkins Group was under investigation.

Not because I had withdrawn my support.

The company's internal audit had uncovered unauthorized transfers made during the previous six months.

Transfers approved using Yvette's credentials.

Most of the money had gone to shell companies connected to Ethan.

Millions were missing.

My father's expression hardened.

"Carter wasn't merely trying to get her money."

I scrolled through the report.

Ethan had apparently been draining Jenkins Group while Yvette defended him.

Some transactions even occurred on days when she had been with me.

She had trusted him so completely that she had given him access to company accounts.

"Can the company survive?" I asked.

"Maybe. If she sells most of what she owns and convinces the banks to restructure the debt."

"Then that's her decision."

My father nodded slowly.

"You're really not going to save her this time."

I handed the tablet back.

"No."

For ten years, whenever Yvette fell, I had been the hands beneath her.

She never noticed because I never allowed her to hit the ground.

This time, there would be no invisible investment.

No secret phone call.

No powerful stranger suddenly offering help.

For the first time, Yvette Jenkins would have to face the consequences of her own choices.

And for the first time, I would let her.