Long Time Running - By Hannah Foster Page 0,40

head. "He's over at Frankie's playing." The determined look on his face gave her pause. "What's going on?"

"I'm done keeping secrets" he announced. "It's time to tell Nathalie and Jack the truth. And I mean today."

Chapter 13

Visibly stiffening, Sarah tightened her grip on the door handle. "You agreed-"

"I've changed my mind," Eric interrupted, unapologetically. "This can't wait. Jack deserves to know the truth and Nathalie has a right to know that her - our - child is right here and that his greatest wish for his birthday is for his parents to be with him."

She shook her head. "It's....Drew said..."

"Drew was trying to help you out," he stated flatly. "I have waited long enough and I'm not waiting any longer. My son is going to know who his father is. Today."

She narrowed her eyes and fixed him with a steely glare. "I decide what is right for Jack," she reminded him tightly.

Eric shook his head. "Sarah - you may be his legal guardian but I am his father. I am on his birth certificate and, while I never pressed it," he paused "you know as well as I do a DNA test would be all it would take for a court to give me custody." His face softened slightly at the look of anguish on her face. "Look, I appreciate everything you have done Sarah - you have been amazing with him."

"Don't!" she bit out. "Don't thank me like I was doing you a favor!" She paused to quickly swipe the tears from her eyes before they could fall. "I love that child. I have loved that child since the moment I watched him come into this world. Everything I have done has been for him and Nat."

He nodded silently, pained at the knowledge of all he had missed and all she thought she was losing. "I do understand that, Sarah. That Jack is a happy kid is very much down to you." He owed her that much. "But he has parents and it's time for him to know them. And it's time for Nathalie to know that Jack is here."

"Eric....you....you don't know how she might react to the news and what it might do to her before her surgery."

"You don't know how she might react to the news either," he pointed out.

"I do!" she insisted emphatically. "I tried to bring Jack up the other day and she lost it, Eric. She couldn't handle it!"

They stared at each other for several beats. They had never been close but over the years they had built a mutual respected for each other.

"I know you want to think that this is me being selfish." She took a breath to try to regain her composure. "And maybe some of it is. But," she emphasized, "I love my sister. You know that."

Eric shook his head in acknowledgement. He had once believed there were no closer siblings than Nathalie and Sarah Grant. "I know you do, Sarah. But there are too many secrets surrounding us and it has to stop. If Nathalie had trusted me all those years ago-"

"She trusted you would hate her" she interjected. "She was positive that you would resent her and the baby. That's what she trusted."

Like a shot to his chest, her words had the desired effect. Inhaling sharply, he jammed his hands in his pockets as he reflected back on his earlier thoughts as he read Nathalie's journal.

"And I would really like to believe she was wrong." He said emotionally. "But even if she wasn't that doesn't make everything that has happened since okay. This has to stop," he told her emphatically. "I am not willing to be Jack's favorite buddy any longer - the guy that takes him to baseball games to make up for the fact he doesn't have a father. I am his father Sarah and I love him. It's time for him to know that."

"What do you think this will do to him, Eric?" she queried. "To know that all of us - Drew included - kept this secret from him?"

"I agreed to this charade because I didn't have faith in my ability to be a father," he admitted gruffly. "That hasn't been the case for years. You and I both know Jack and Nat deserve the truth, Sarah. Who are we to keep it from them?"

"Sarah," Eric whispered as he reached out to grab her hand. Sarah fought her instinct to recoil at the unfamiliar touch. "You know Nathalie will forgive you. And you know