Chapter Seventy-five Evan Sterling's POV (Present Time)

"Remember my mum was a doctor?"
"Yes," I replied, nodding.
"She operated a private free clinic for homeless and abused teenage girls who can not afford hospital bills. For some of those teenagers, she helped with aborting unwanted pregnancies—"
"Yes?"
"Mary Antoinette and Anastasia Dallas were one of her patients but that wasn't the name they used—”
"What?!" I exclaimed in disbelief.
A gentle knock sounded from the door and Estera winced. I frowned.
Foster went to the door, opened it and stepped outside. I heard him speaking with someone who had come to let him know the Dallas’ were done signing the authorization papers. I framed Estera’s face, peering into her eyes. She searched mine and I could feel her quivering. Foster came back inside, shut the door and cleared his throat. I sighed.
"They are done with the signing. I have to go and meet with them—" he said.
"Thank you, Cole, this is not the right place to have this kind of discussion anyway. I think I better get the twins and head home…" Estera said.
"Give me a few minutes to discharge them and I will join you guys," he said.
"Okay, I will let Ameera and Ashley know I’m ready to go," she said and brought out her phone. She quickly sent a message, pocketed the phone and reached for my hand.
"See you in a bit. Excuse me…" Foster said, avoiding meeting my gaze and headed for the door. Estera tugged my hand and we followed him outside. And as soon as we stepped outside, she dropped my hand. I noticed Foster didn't miss the gesture. He went ahead of us and Estera followed. I quickly sent a chat message to my mother, letting her know I had to leave.
Slipping the phone back into my pocket, we found our way back to the hospital employee’s parking lot.
Ameera and Ashley were already waiting by Estera's car. I flashed them a smile, and the two waved at me, grinning from ear to ear.
“Thank you for looking out for the boys—” I said.
“Oh, that's nothing. They are our godchildren,” Ameera said.
“We love having them, Rolland is quite a character—”
“Adrian is the sweetest!” Ashley gushed. I chuckled. Estera pressed the unlock button on the car key and I pulled the door open.
"What's going on?" Ashley whispered as Estera hugged her.
"Nothing. Evan needs to talk to me and it’s past the boys' bedtime. I need to get them home."
"Okay," Ashley said.
“And Dr. Foster?” Ameera whispered.
“He is attending to a new patient—”
“How did he react to meeting him,” Ameera whispered.
“Normal, I suppose,” Estera whispered back. I tried to concentrate on the boys but their whispered conversation was audible enough for me to hear. My eyes settled on Rolland. He was sleeping now, and I couldn’t help pausing to study his face, marveling at how he looked so much like me. Then I lifted him first from the stroller, placing him in one of the car seats that has his initials on it. I strapped him in and picked Adrian, my heart constricted. I couldn’t wait to meet him. I dropped a kiss on his hair as I placed him in his seat. All the while Estera and her friends were still having their whispery conversation.
A few minutes later, we drove out of the parking lot with Estera behind the wheels, the boys in the back seat asleep and I in the passenger seat.
"We didn't come in through here,” I said when she drove out of a gate I didn't recognize.
"We have three entrances. This one is for the doctors."
"Great," I mumbled.
"My house is not so far away."
"Do you live alone?"
"Yes, I do now…"
"You were sharing a flat with your friends…"
"Yes, that was a long time ago…"
"Then you went to Columbia…"
"Um... yes."
"With Foster…" I said and she took a side glance at me.
"Cole is part of my life, Evan. Just like Ashley and Ameera are. "
"Come on, now, babe I know what you have with Foster is quite different."
"Yes, Evan, we dated—"
"I don’t want to hear about the man or men you fucked, Estera!"
"You are unbelievable, Evan! We have been apart for all these years. You never came after me and now you are acting jealous?!"
"I asked to speak with you after Jacob's party. You deceived me into thinking we will. Then you left without leaving me a phone number, address or any clue to how to find you. I had to speak with Jacob to help me contact that Bobby guy that got you guys the gig, nothing came out of that. I hired a private detective to comb every hospital in New York. I tried to find you, Estera. But you clearly didn’t want to be found!"
“Well, now you know why I left—”
“You could have trusted me with your side of the story. We could have found a way to work things out!”
"And before that? Your mother knew where I was! For all those years I spent at Harvard, she knew exactly where to find me. Why didn’t you come to look for me, Evan?”
"I don't think I want to talk about that right now—"
"Evan—"
"Please—" I said, interrupting whatever she was going to say.
The car went quiet for about a minute and then she said, "Your mother apologized but she didn't tell me what she was apologizing for. You seemed withdrawn with her and you now call your father by his first name… And that’s all the clues I need. At first, I believed not reaching out to you was the best, your father said you would lose everything if you chose me. I didn’t want that for you. And what he did to me—I figured there was no getting over that hurdle... But deep inside me, I wanted you to come after me, talk to me at least. Instead, I found out you got married. Just like that. You can imagine how crushing that was for me. I didn’t want to face it. But I had to at some point. Then I figured what we had must not be as important to you as it was to me," She said in almost a whisper. “I was wrong, wasn’t I?”
“Yes, I never stopped loving you, Estie,” I replied. She nodded then wiped her face with the back of her hand and I knew then she was crying.
"Baby, park the car let me drive—”