Chapter 2
For several seconds, I could hear nothing except Lily crying against my mother’s shoulder.
The party disappeared around me.
The balloons.
The cake.
The whispers.
Everything.
I stared at the photograph in my hand.
The man was probably forty.
Dark hair.
Expensive suit.
Cold smile.
His arm was around Vanessa’s waist outside a restaurant downtown.
In another photograph, Vanessa was kissing him beside a black SUV.
I looked at my mother.
“What did you just say?”
Mom swallowed.
“His name is Marcus Hale.”
Vanessa immediately shook her head.
“Ruth, shut up.”
I turned toward her.
“You don’t get to tell anyone to shut up.”
My sister Jenna stepped between us.
“Daniel, Lily is scared.”
Hearing my name brought me back.
I looked at my daughter.
Her cheeks were wet.
Her hair was tangled where Vanessa had grabbed it.
The red marks on her knees made my stomach twist.
I went to her.
“Sweetheart, Daddy needs you to go inside with Grandma for a few minutes.”
Lily grabbed my shirt.
“No.”
“You’re safe.”
“Vanessa will come in.”
The fear in her voice changed everything.
Not anger.
Not confusion.
Fear.
I looked at Vanessa again.
“How long has she been afraid of you?”
Vanessa threw up her hands.
“This is ridiculous.”
Lily flinched at her voice.
I saw it.
Mom saw it.
Half the people at the party saw it.
I crouched beside Lily.
“Has Vanessa hurt you before?”
Vanessa stepped forward.
“She is four years old, Daniel.”
I pointed at her.
“Stay where you are.”
She stopped.
Lily whispered, “Sometimes.”
My heart seemed to stop.
“What does sometimes mean?”
Lily looked toward Vanessa.
Then she buried her face in Mom’s neck.
“I don’t want her mad.”
I closed my eyes.
I had married Vanessa fourteen months earlier.
I had trusted her with my child.
Every morning when I left for work, I kissed Lily goodbye and believed she was safe.
How many times had she watched me leave while knowing what would happen after I drove away?
I stood slowly.
“Mom, take Lily inside. Lock the door.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“You’re locking me out of my own house?”
“It was my house before I married you.”
Her face hardened.
“And there it is.”
“What?”
“What you really think of me.”
I nearly laughed.
“You dragged my daughter by her hair.”
“She threw a tantrum.”
“She opened a present.”
“She disobeyed me!”
“You attacked a four-year-old.”
Vanessa pointed toward the people around us.
“And you assaulted your wife in front of thirty witnesses.”
That stopped me.
She smiled.
A tiny smile.
That was when I understood.
She wasn’t crying anymore.
She wasn’t ashamed.
She was calculating.
My cousin Mark quietly stepped beside me.
“Daniel, don’t say anything else.”
Mark was a criminal defense attorney.
I looked at him.
He nodded toward several guests holding phones.
“People recorded the whole thing.”
Vanessa’s smile widened.
“Exactly.”
My stomach dropped.
She had hurt Lily.
I had reacted.
And now she intended to use my reaction against me.
Jenna whispered, “This was supposed to happen differently.”
I spun toward my sister.
“What did you say?”
Her face went pale.
Vanessa stared at her.
“Jenna.”
“No.”
Jenna shook her head.
“I’m done.”
“Done with what?” I demanded.
Jenna looked at me with tears in her eyes.
“Vanessa came to me three weeks ago.”
My chest tightened.
“She told me Marcus was threatening her. She said he believed Lily was his daughter and wanted a DNA test.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because she begged me not to.”
I stared at my own sister.
“She showed you this?”
“Not all of it.”
Jenna glanced at the documents.
“She said Marcus had been harassing her because she knew Claire.”
Claire.
My first wife.
Lily’s mother.
Just hearing her name reopened a wound I had spent three years learning to live with.
Claire had died in a highway accident when Lily was eleven months old.
For months afterward, I had slept on the floor beside Lily’s crib because I couldn’t stand being alone in our bedroom.
My mother had helped me survive.
Jenna had helped me survive.
Then Vanessa came into my life.
Warm.
Patient.
Understanding.
She never tried to replace Claire.
At least that was what I had believed.
I looked down at the papers from Claire’s estate.
“What does Marcus have to do with Claire?”
Mom answered quietly.
“He knew her before you did.”
I looked at her.
“How?”
“College.”
“You knew him?”
“I knew about him.”
Mom glanced toward the house where Lily had disappeared.
“Claire told me once that she had dated someone before you. She never gave me his full name. She said he had become controlling.”
Vanessa laughed.
“Controlling? That’s convenient.”
I turned.
“What is convenient?”
“That your dead wife can’t tell you the truth.”
I took one step toward her.
Mark grabbed my arm.
“Daniel.”
I stopped.
Vanessa smiled again.
Then she said the sentence that made my blood go cold.
“Maybe Claire lied to you for four years.”
I stared at her.
“About what?”
Vanessa nodded toward Lily.
“About who her father was.”
My legs felt weak.
Jenna covered her mouth.
Mom whispered, “Don’t do this here.”
But Vanessa wasn’t finished.
“She was already pregnant when she married you.”
“That’s a lie.”
“Is it?”
“I was with Claire when Lily was conceived.”
“You think you were.”
I lunged for the documents scattered beside the table.
I found Lily’s birth certificate.
My name was printed under FATHER.
Daniel Brooks.
I held it up.
“My name is right here.”
Vanessa looked almost sorry for me.
“Birth certificates prove legal parentage. Not biology.”
I wanted to scream at her.
Instead I looked at the custody petition.
Marcus Hale was requesting emergency temporary custody pending DNA testing.
The petition accused me of being emotionally unstable.
Violent.
Unfit.
It mentioned Claire’s death.
My counseling afterward.
Medication I had briefly taken for depression.
Things almost nobody knew.
My eyes moved to Vanessa’s attached statement.
She described me as unpredictable.
Possessive.
Dangerous.
She claimed I shouted at Lily.
Claimed I had punched holes in walls.
Claimed she feared I would flee with Lily if Marcus’s biological claim became public.
None of it was true.
Then I reached the final paragraph.
My hands began shaking.
“Upon removal of the minor child from Daniel Brooks, temporary placement is requested with petitioner Marcus Hale or, alternatively, with the child’s stepmother, Vanessa Brooks.”
I looked at Vanessa.
“You were trying to take my daughter.”
She crossed her arms.
“I was trying to protect her.”
“From me?”
“From what you might do when you learned the truth.”
I looked at the photographs again.
“You were sleeping with him.”
She said nothing.
That silence was enough.
Mom whispered, “Oh, God.”
Jenna started crying.
I felt something inside me collapse.
The woman I had brought into my home had been meeting a man claiming my child.
She had copied legal documents.
She had written a statement designed to destroy me.
And my four-year-old had been terrified of her.
I pulled out my phone.
Vanessa’s expression changed.
“Who are you calling?”
“The police.”
She laughed.
“For what?”
“For what everyone here just watched you do.”
“You hit me too.”
“I know.”
Her confidence flickered.
I looked at Mark.
“Tell them everything.”
He nodded.
“Everything.”
Vanessa took a step backward.
“You need to think carefully, Daniel.”
“No.”
I pressed call.
“For the first time since I married you, I’m thinking clearly.”
She grabbed her purse.
I blocked her path.
“Leave it.”
“Get away from me.”
“That purse contains documents involving my daughter.”
“They’re mine.”
“Then the police can decide.”
She suddenly reached inside.
Mark shouted.
“Daniel!”
I grabbed her wrist.
Vanessa struggled.
Something fell from the purse.
A second phone.
It hit the patio and skidded beneath a chair.
Vanessa went completely still.
I picked it up.
The screen was unlocked.
A message notification appeared.
MARCUS:
Did he find the petition?
Then another message arrived.
MARCUS:
If he did, get Lily out before the police come.
And then one more.
MARCUS:
The judge is ready. We only need Daniel to lose control once.
I slowly lifted my eyes.
Vanessa stared at the phone.
Around us, nobody spoke.
I showed the screen to Mark.
His expression changed.
“This wasn’t just a custody petition.”
“What was it?”
He looked at Vanessa.
“This was a setup.”
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Vanessa suddenly turned and ran.
Not toward the driveway.
Toward the house.
Toward Lily.
I ran after her.
“VANESSA!”
She reached the back door first.
It was locked.
She slammed both hands against it.
“Lily!”
I grabbed Vanessa and pulled her backward.
She screamed.
“You don’t understand!”
“What don’t I understand?”
She twisted toward me.
Her face was no longer smug.
She looked terrified.
“Marcus isn’t coming for Lily because he loves her.”
My grip loosened.
“Then why?”
Vanessa looked toward the street as the sirens grew louder.
“Because of what Claire left her.”
I stared at her.
“What did Claire leave Lily?”
May you like
Vanessa whispered,
“Forty-two million dollars.”
