Page 130 of Mile High Ex's Dad
“I have something to tell you,” he says.
My hand tightens on his arm. “Don’t.”
He shakes me off with more force than I expect.
And then he says it.
“Sienna was my girlfriend,” he says, looking at Viktor, not me. “And now she’s pregnant with my child.”
For a second I can’t breathe.
I don’t even think. My whole body just goes hot with disbelief and fury and something close to panic. Not because I’m ashamed. Because of how calculated it feels, even drunk. How ugly. How deliberate. He’s not confused anymore. He’s choosing this. Choosing to throw it at Viktor like a weapon and see what breaks first.
“No,” I say. My voice sounds thin next to the weight of what he’s just done, but I force it steady. “That is not true.”
Ethan laughs again, softer now, uglier. “Come on.”
Viktor hasn’t moved. He’s just standing there, expression unreadable, eyes on Ethan, and I have no idea what he’s thinking because he’s giving away absolutely nothing.
Alina turns to me then, sharp and searching and wounded all at once, as if the last ten minutes haven’t already done enough damage.
“Ethan,” she says, and for the first time her voice really cracks, “you are drunk.”
He ignores her. “Tell him,” he says to me. “Go on.”
I stare at him, and something in me goes cold. Because it’s not enough for him to lie. He wants to force me into the shape of his lie too.
“I already told you it isn’t yours,” I say.
“Did you?” he says. “Or did you just say what was convenient?”
The insult in that barely registers next to everything else.
Viktor finally speaks. “One more word,” he says, looking at Ethan, “and I will decide this conversation is over for you.” His tone is quiet.
Ethan hears it. We all do. Still, some stupid, drunken part of him is too far gone to stop.
“It makes sense,” he says. “Doesn’t it? Timing, history, all of it. We were in Spain. We broke up for a stupid reason.”
“Spain,” Viktor says quietly. I know exactly what he’s thinking. We met on the flight from Spain to Los Angeles.
Viktor’s eyes flick to me then.
Just once.
Not enough for anyone else to make much of it, maybe. More than enough for me. There’s something in that look I can’t read, because he’s keeping it buried under too much control.
Alina steps in before Ethan can go on. “That’s enough,” she says. Her hand closes around Ethan’s arm with surprising force. “You are coming with me.”
He tries to pull away. “No.”
“Yes,” she says. “Now.”
He looks at Viktor again, then at me, and for one second I think he might keep going. Say something even worse. But maybe even drunk he still knows when he’s gone too far, or maybe Alina’s grip says something his mind is too blurred to ignore.
Either way, he stops talking.
Viktor still hasn’t taken his eyes off him.
