Chapter 7 - Learning Their Names
Ethan did not demand immediate custody.
Despite his anger, he understood that biology did not make him familiar to the girls.
He began with Saturday visits.
Camila remained present at first.
On their first outing, Ethan took the triplets and Noah to a science museum. Noah was ten, serious, and initially uncertain about gaining three younger sisters in a single week.
The uncertainty disappeared when Rose asked him to read every information board aloud.
By lunchtime, Lily was competing with him to answer quiz questions, Ivy was correcting his dinosaur facts, and Rose was wearing his baseball cap.
Ethan learned their differences.
Lily entered every room as though she owned it.
Rose observed quietly before speaking.
Ivy asked difficult questions adults preferred to avoid.
“Do you still love our mother?” she asked while they waited for ice cream.
Ethan nearly dropped his wallet.
Camila, standing beside him, suddenly became interested in the menu.
“I care about her,” Ethan replied.
“That’s not what I asked.”
“Ivy,” Camila warned.
“What? I like accurate answers.”
Noah laughed.
Ethan looked at Camila.
There had been a time when loving her had felt as natural as breathing. Those feelings had not vanished, but they were buried beneath grief and mistrust.
“We’re learning how to be friends again,” he said.
Ivy accepted that answer.
The weeks became months.
Ethan attended dance recitals, helped with homework, and learned how to braid hair by watching online tutorials. His first attempts were terrible. The girls wore the uneven braids to school anyway.
Camila watched him become part of their routines.
He arrived when he promised.
He listened when they spoke.
He never attempted to purchase their affection.
Victor had always claimed Ethan could not provide for children. Yet Ethan gave them something Victor never had.
He gave them safety without conditions.
The girls eventually visited Ethan’s house.
It was smaller than Camila’s, but he had transformed the spare room into a bedroom with three matching beds. He painted one wall yellow, the color he and Camila had once chosen for their future kitchen.
Above each bed was a wooden nameplate.
Lily.
Rose.
Ivy.
Rose touched the last name.
“You knew Mommy called me Ivy instead of Violet?”
“She told me.”
“Do you wish I was still Violet?”
Ethan shook his head.
“I wish I had been there when she chose Ivy.”
Rose hugged him without warning.
It was the first time one of the girls called him Dad.
The word came softly against his shirt.
“Thank you, Dad.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
Across the hallway, Camila had heard it.
She turned away to hide her tears.
But while Ethan and Camila were rebuilding what Victor had broken, Victor was preparing to defend himself.
He claimed Helena’s recording was fabricated.
He accused Ethan of pursuing the children for access to the Reed family’s wealth.
Then he filed a legal petition arguing that contact with Ethan was emotionally harmful to the triplets.
Victor had started the battle seven years earlier.
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This time, Ethan and Camila would face him together.
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