He returned in the summer of 1999, with his then girlfriend, Gwen Hotchkiss. Ethan and Gwen had been together since they were twelve. Their families planned to have them married, since they were born.
Ethan later on met Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald. The daughter of his family's housekeeper. Their first few meeting were disastrous but later on they developed a close friendship.
He later on, realized he was in love with Theresa. The two had to overcome a lot to be together. Both of their families forbade their romance and Gwen and her mother, Rebecca were plotting to keep the two apart.
All in all, everything worked out. Ethan proposed to Theresa and she accepted.
But trouble was just around the corner. Gwen's mother, Rebecca found out that Ethan wasn't really a Crane. That his mother had an affair with Sam Bennett. Ethan was the son of the local Chief of Police.
Rebecca found the information on Theresa's lap top. Theresa scanned the documents of Ethan's true paternity into her lap top, so she could tell Ethan the truth and have proof.
Theresa eventually deleted the file, but Rebecca already copied the file onto a disk. She and her daughter, Gwen sent the information to the tabloids from Theresa's email.
On the night of Ethan and Theresa's engagement party, a reporter came in an announced Ethan was not a Crane.
Gwen and Rebecca were quite satisfied. They thought Theresa would leave Ethan as soon as she found out he was penniless. They were wrong.
Ethan has bad feelings towards his real father, Sam, so he decided to take his Mother's maiden name as his new last name. Ethan Winthrop.
But, as time went on, Ethan and Sam have put aside their differences and are starting to bond.
Gwen and Rebecca are still planning to destroy their love. They plan to reveal on Theresa's wedding say that she sent the email to the tabloid. Which of course, Theresa didn't. Will the Hotchkiss women triumph or will true love conquer all?