Earn My Trust

Chapter 9 - Confession Time

"Hannah, I know you're angry at me..." He began, his arms raised slightly while he tried to reassure her, like she was suicidal and he was trying to stop her from jumping off a bridge, but she didn't let him finish.
"Who the fuck do you think you are, you psychotic stalker?!" Hannah screeched at him. "You think you can fucking use me to get back at your ex after one fucking meeting?"
Oh, that hurt!
The accusation she threw at him hit home, but not in the way she thought it did.
"Hannah. It's me!" He tried again.
"Yes, Ethan! I can fucking see, you prick!"
"No, I'm Robin!" He exclaimed desperately, trying to soothe her but also trying to get the truth out at the same time.
She stopped dead at that and stared at him.
"No, you're not!" She shook her head before frantically looking around for her phone. "That's it, I'm calling the police!"
"Yes, I am!" Ethan pressed urgently. "I can prove it!"
He yanked his phone out of his pocket and called her number. Her phone started ringing.
"Not only that, I have every message I ever sent to you. Even through the dating app, which was how we first met."
He ended the call and pocketed his phone, giving her a pleading look.
"Let me explain everything. Please, I never meant for you to find out this way!"
Hannah shook her head in denial. "You can't be!" She whispered, pushing Bea further behind her and backing away from him. "You can't be!"
"Please, Hannah. I owe you an apology and an explanation, at least."
She shook her head again and looked down at her daughter, who peered back up at her with wide, petrified eyes. Her baby was scared.
So was she!
She was standing in the same room as Ethan Sanders, the wealthiest man in the world.
Less than twelve hours ago, he had helped her collect her daughter, then take her to the hospital when she broke her foot.
He claims to have been Robin all this time.
He was standing in her living room begging with her to listen to him.
He was also, according to the video she watched, using her to get back at his ex.
The rational part of her realised how ridiculous the last thought was. He had helped her to the hospital because of her foot!
Why was she believing a lie about herself?!
She needed to calm down and swallowed down her panic the best she could, not able to shake it off completely. She realised the way she was acting wasn't helping, but she couldn't stop shaking.
"Are you OK, buzzy Bea?" She asked her with a broken voice, falling to her knees and holding her tightly.
Bea nodded as she huddled closer to her mummy.
"How did you get here?" She asked Ethan over her shoulder.
Ethan breathed a small sigh of relief now that she had calmed down enough to speak to him without screaming.
"Bea called me." He replied simply. "She said she was worried about you."
He didn't want to go into any more detail than that in case it panicked Hannah even more.
Hannah broke down in tears.
"I'm so sorry, my baby. I'm so sorry. Mummy was just... I was just..." she couldn't even explain what happened.
She had been so distraught, so caught up with what could happen after seeing the video. She couldn't explain what happened after.
"Bea was very good." Ethan smiled fondly at the small girl. "She stayed on the phone to me while I rushed over. Although, I'll likely have a lot of speeding tickets to deal with."
Hannah closed her eyes and picked Bea up, backing up until she felt the sofa hit her calfs before sitting down, keeping her daughter in her comforting embrace.
She looked at Ethan sceptically, as she hadn't heard his explanation yet, but calm enough to allow him the time now.
Ethan caught her looking and gave her a grave smile.
"I'm sorry I never told you before now." He sighed.
Hannah bit her lip, hesitating on whether she should put Bea back to bed or not before she let Ethan tell her everything.
She selfishly decided that she needed Bea with her to stay strong.
She clearly remembered the night Jake had sent that picture. How she had held her then four month old baby girl tightly to her and how she had silently helped her make the right decision for her and their future.
"Is... is it OK if she stays?" She asked him quietly.
He nodded. "I owe you both everything, and she deserves to hear my apology, too."
She nodded, unsure if her choice was the right one, but she needed her with her right now. She was her rock.
Ethan cautiously stepped further into the room, taking a deep breath in preparation for what he was about to do.
"Ok. So let me introduce myself properly." He began nervously. "My name is Ethan Sanders. I own Sanders Insurance and Finance, which is a global company, along with many, many properties across the world, as well as owning shares in many huge retail companies."
He winced as he finished his lame reintroduction. For fuck sake, he sounded like he was bragging!
Hannah arched an unimpressed eyebrow at him from where she remained huddled together with her daughter, but she didn't say anything.
He shook his head and continued, deciding to stick to what was relevant.
"When I joined that dating app, I didn't have high expectations." He cast her a crooked smile. "I'm sure you remember how I totally ignored you and went for the women that looked more desperate."
A smile filtered through her cold stare, but she quickly wiped it away, reminding him he wasn't in her good books at the moment.
"Things... changed when I saw you. What I thought was going to happen was thrown out of the window when you told me you were who I had arranged to see."
She hummed cynically. "Why were you hiding who you really are?"
"Well... I'm guessing you saw the magazine articles?"
Her eyes widened when it hit her.
"Oh... you didn't want to be noticed..." she muttered dumbly.
He nodded. "Everywhere I go, if it's not the press, its gold diggers. I suppose you could say I wasn't prepared to find someone who took me by surprise and... was genuine for once."
It suddenly all made sense to her. "That's why it took you ages to accept that I wasn't going to let you buy me a drink."
He nodded. "I told you shortly after I had finished my first McDonald's in... what? Nearly twenty years?" He thought for a moment before shaking his head, deciding it didn't matter. "Anyway,I told you that you surprised me. That you were the first person who didn't act the way I expected. You didn't try to empty my bank account. You were stubbornly independent, and it was refreshing..."
A smile crept back on her face but vanished as quickly as it appeared when she remembered what happened before they'd got the McDonald's.
"Seeing Bianca..." she whispered as she finally pieced the puzzle together. "That's why you stopped."
He nodded. "I was shitting myself that they'd recognise me! That she would see me! Hannah..." he dropped to his knees in front of her, grabbing her hand in both of his and planting a pleading kiss on her knuckles. He smiled at Bea, who was silently watching the both of them with unsure curiosity, and took her hand too, planting another pleading kiss on her small hand too. "Please forgive me for being so secretive. I wanted you to be protected from all the unwanted attention, and the only way I could do that was to hide who I was."
His eyes brimmed with tears as he looked into Hannahs eyes sincerely.
"As time went on, I fell into such a comfortable pattern with you. I was untroubled, but I hated myself for having to pretend I was someone else just so I could be with you without being followed or harassed. I wanted to tell you who I was, I really did, but everything we had together was so... private, I never wanted it to end."
He closed his eyes and bowed his head for a moment to get his emotions in check, then slowly lifted his gaze back to her.
"I never wanted to hurt you. I want to be able to give you everything, but only if you ask for it as I know you don't like it. I will share everything I have with you... I love you, Hannah."
Hannah's chest swelled, and she burst out crying again. She gazed longingly at him through her tears but couldn't bring herself to say it back to him. She quickly broke their eye contact and turned her fave away to plant a soothing kiss on Bea's head.
Ethan stayed there on his knees, feeling very vulnerable as he waited for her to say something. Anything!
Eventually, she sadly looked him in the eye, and his heart plummeted.
"I can't say it back, Ethan." She whispered solemnly. "I fell in love with Robin Baskins... not Ethan Sanders. To me, you've hit the reset button on our relationship before it ever really got started."
He bowed his head again so she couldn't see his devastated expression.
"I understand..." he barely managed to whisper through his pain. "I'll... I'll leave you... alone..."
He slowly got up, placing a last kiss on both their hands before standing up straight and giving the girls a final longing gaze before turning to leave.
"Just give me time..." Hannah interjected quickly before he could leave the flat completely, his hand resting on the front doors latch.
He looked back over his shoulder to where she stood, leaning against the doorway to avoid putting pressure on her foot, with Bea still in her arms, sadly watching him.
"Give me time to come to terms with this, Ro - Ethan..." she said a little more confidently. "It's a lot to take in, and while we can't carry on with you being Robin anymore, I need time to think if going out with Ethan Sanders is... is something we'd be able to cope with."
She offered him a small smile of comfort, but it didn't give him much hope.
He knew how scary his reality was to them. It wasn't just the constant photographs they'd have to live with. It was the ever-growing web of lies, the assumptions people made before hearing the truth. He couldn't bear it if Hannah was subjected to hate mail like Bianca had been.
It was a total breach of privacy they didn't deserve. While he loved them, even though he'd only met Bea the once, he wouldn't allow them to be subjected to that.
"Don't worry about it." He whispered, breaking their eye contact guiltily. "I won't bother you again. You don't deserve this, Hannah. Bea? You are a wonderful little girl. You are beautiful and highly intelligent! I wish I had gotten to know you better, but I'm sorry. I can't do this to you both."
With that, he left the flat, leaving behind mother and daughter in painful, stunned silence.