Chapter Forty-Nine

"You found her?" Ethan asked, unable to hide the hopefulness in his voice. It's been a long two weeks obtaining the information needed to find Aria Linetti.

He briefly thought she should work for the FBI due to her ability to disappear. Mr. Stetson, an older man, stood in the doorway of Ethan's office with a card in one hand and the other shoved down into his pants pocket.

"I found her friend Joan Comiskey's residence, and I believe Aria is staying with her." He flicked the card between his fingers and handed it to him.

Ethan read over the address many times, memorizing it. "Thank you, Mr. Stetson. I've sent a check to your assistant this morning. I appreciate you finding this for me."

He nodded once and turned to leave but stopped. "I don't normally make it my business when someone asks me to find another person, but I've known your father for ages. Who is this young lady to you, Ethan?"

What a loaded question.

Ethan leaned back against his seat, tapping the end of his pen against his desk. "She's an ex-employee of mine and also the mother of my unborn son. She vanished after telling me because of my reaction, and now, I'm desperate to find her."

If Mr. Stetson was surprised, he didn't show it. He gave Ethan a clipped nod and grabbed the door handle. "The best of luck, Mr. Devry."

When the door closed, Ethan went to his computer to input the address into Google Maps. It was only ten minutes away, and he was tempted to leave right away. But he'd already made a fool of himself several times in the last month, so he would go after work. Hopefully, one of them would be home and answer the door if he stopped by.

Marilyn stopped by around lunch to speak with him about an upcoming renewal in one of their contracts when his phone rang. Normally, he would let an unknown number go to voicemail, but he needed a break from talking semantics with Marilyn.

"Hello."

"Is this Ethan Devry?"

Ethan glanced at Marilyn as she stared him down, looking annoyed that he look the call at all.

"This is he. How can I help you? Who am I speaking with?"

There was a sound of distress in the background, and Ethan shifted nervously. "Is everything okay? I—who is this?"

"This is Joan Comiskey. Aria's friend. I'm calling because Aria has begun to have contractions. They aren't regular enough to go to the hospital just yet, but I didn't want you to miss this. She doesn’t know that I've contacted you, and she might be pissed, but she'll feel better afterward when she realizes it was the right thing to do. It may take a day or two before she's ready to go, but there is no way to tell."

Ethan stood, his movements robotic, almost zombielike, and grabbed his keys from his desk. "I'll be there. I just found your address today. I'd been trying to find her for weeks. Is this the correct address?" he asked, rattling it off the business card Mr. Stetson gave him.

"That's it. There is something else I need to tell you … her ex-boyfriend is here, and he assumes the baby is his, but it's not."

Ethan blinked back the red haze over his vision and fought the urge to curse at no one. "I'll be there," he said quickly, ending the call before he asked too many questions about her ex.

He spun around the room like a tornado, grabbing his things and trying to calm his racing heart.

"Is it Aria?" Marilyn asked while stepping back to let Ethan walk past her. "Is she having the baby?"

Ethan stop, his vision disoriented, his palms sweating, and each breath harder than the last to take. "Uh, she's having contractions, but they aren't regular enough to go to the hospital just yet. I'm … I'm going to go see her. I don't know what to say or do. I think she probably hates me."

Marilyn stepped forward, her demeanor changed, and she seemed calm. "Go see her. Remember she's emotional, hurting, and might not like the sight of you. Don't try and control the situation, let it happen, and make sure her needs are met. She's giving life to your son. To Devry Media's heir."

Ethan took her advice and ran with it—literally.

He dashed down the stairs, out of Devry Media and into the parking garage, where he started his engine and raced toward Joan's house. He didn't know Joan well but had never been more grateful for her in his life.

Thinking he had three more weeks before the birth of his son, he would have missed his birth and regretted it the rest of his life. That was one special time that he could never get back. The ten minutes it took him to get to Joan's house felt like a lifetime due to the traffic, and he needed to get to her.

Three vehicles sat in the driveway, and Ethan's heart hammered at the thought of Landen comforting Aria while she was pregnant with his child. His fingers curled into fists at his sides as he stalked toward the front door and pounded on it.

Joan immediately opened the door, a sigh of relief on her face as she stepped back at let him inside. Aria sat on the couch in the far corner, her feet resting on an old wood coffee table, her palms curled around her bulging stomach.

She sat up when she saw him, her eyes round, and her mouth opened several times, but no words came out. Then, Ethan met Landen's gaze from across the room, where he sat in a recliner to the right of Aria, a concerned look on his face.

"Ethan, I'm so glad you came," Joan said, giving Aria a look that told on herself.

Ethan cleared his throat, ignoring the heated stare Landen gave him. "I've been looking for you since you quit so abruptly, Aria—you changed your number. I came back to talk to you after a day from Hell with firing Abe and a fight with my father, and you'd left."

Aria swallowed, and closed her eyes tightly, curling her legs up in pain. Joan clicked a timer. "Ten minutes apart," she said softly.

"Who is this?" Landen asked. "Is this your boyfriend, Joan?"

Joan glanced at Aria, and then at Ethan.

Ethan stepped forward, going to spill everything to him, with no plans to spare his feelings, but Aria sat up. "This is Ethan Devry, Landen, and he's the father of my baby—not you."

In that moment, Ethan watch Landen's face turn ashen white, and a deadly snarl rise from the corner of her mouth. For minutes, the only noise in the entire house was the ticking of the clock on the wall.

Joan cleared her throat softly. "Aria tried to tell you the last time you two met, but you wouldn't let her get a word in—"

"Ethan Devry … as in Devry Media? You're sleeping with your boss. Wow, Aria. That's classic. Now you're going to have this billionaire's baby and forget about me?" He bounded up to his feet, staring down at Aria as if she wasn't having contractions and in pain.

"You need to calm down," Ethan said stepping forward to intersect Landen's sudden outrage.

Landen turned his attention to Ethan, pointing a finger in his face. "Aria is eight months pregnant; you slept with her while I was still with her."

Aria sighed deeply. "Seriously, Landen? I went out with Joan the weekend after I found you in the shower with that girl. I met Ethan then, got pregnant, and then interviewed for the job and got it. You don't have the right to talk down to me about getting pregnant by someone else. You were sleeping with someone else in our apartment while I planned your 30th birthday party."

Landen chuckled humorlessly; turning in a circle, he ran his fingers into his red hair. "I can't believe this, Aria. I'm not the father, this uppity jackass is?"

Ethan shoved his shoulder to get his attention off Aria and on him. He felt his resolve begin to slip the more he thought about the situation, and the more his words to Aria raced through his head.

"Don't touch me," Landen said, pointing his finger at him again. "You're not raising this kid, and I want a DNA test, I don't believe for a minute that this isn't my child."

Ethan's temper began to wear thin. "Well, believe it," he said, his voice low and semi-controlled. "Because I'm taking care of my child, and I don't give a damn about what you think about it."

Landen shoved Ethan's shoulder, this time with too much force for Ethan's liking, and on reflex, Ethan slugged Landen, unleashing so much aggression that it doubled back into him like lightening, and Ethan felt the moment he lost his control and attacked him.