Seeing no way past this unpalatable fact Kate fled out the door.
She could come clean on who the Wayne was that she was talking to but to do so would be to spoil the surprise. The planning was complete and the party would go ahead whether she was there or not. Never feeling right with all this wealth and sophistication Kate wasn't even planning to attend just stay in the kitchen and help Darlene.
Now she knew why. The kind of woman that has an affair with a student does not belong in Ethan's world, in anyone's world. Telling Ethan about the party would only exonerate her from the suspicious phone call. The damming photos and investigators report, the inquiry, the suspension, all stood as her silent accuser with Ethan as her judge and jury. They depicted a person she couldn't remember but of whom she must be, but didn't want to be.
It hit her then as she fled to the stairs.
Two truths.
One, that she loved Ethan deeply.
Two, that she could never have him.
She wasn't worthy.
It hit him then as he heard Kate pounding up the stairs.
Two truths.
One that he loved her deeply and two that he could never have her, never declare his love for her. For the woman who fled in fear or more likely guilt was not the woman he had fallen in love with. He had given his heart to an illusion, a shadow, a non-existent angel who saved his life and then callously destroyed it. She wasn't worthy.
Ethan slumped into the nearest sofa and, head in his hands, cried the first tears he had shed in many years.