Chapter 2
For a few seconds, nobody moved.
Even Lily stopped crying long enough to look at Emily.
Jason went white.
“Emily.”
His voice sounded like a warning.
She ignored him.
The envelope in her hand was yellow with age.
My name was written across the front.
Sarah Coleman.
Underneath it was the name of a private laboratory in Scottsdale.
I stared at Jason.
“What happened the night Lily was born?”
He swallowed.
“Sarah, not here.”
“Here is exactly where you’re going to tell me.”
Diane stepped forward.
“That envelope proves nothing.”
Emily laughed once.
It wasn’t a happy sound.
“You’ve been saying that for seven years.”
Robert, my father-in-law, finally stood from his chair.
“What envelope?”
That surprised me.
He looked genuinely confused.
Emily held it higher.
“The original DNA report.”
I felt Lily tighten her arms around my waist.
My heart seemed to stop.
I looked at Jason.
“You tested Lily?”
He closed his eyes.
That was my answer.
I almost dropped to my knees.
“You had a DNA test done on our newborn baby?”
“I was scared.”
“Of what?”
Jason’s eyes filled.
“My mother told me you had been seeing someone.”
Diane snapped, “Because she was.”
“No, I wasn’t!”
My voice cracked across the yard.
Lily flinched.
I immediately lowered my voice and held her closer.
Jason rubbed both hands over his face.
“Mom showed me messages.”
“What messages?”
“She said they came from your old phone.”
I stared at him.
“I never had another man.”
“I know that now.”
Those five words destroyed something inside me.
“You know that now?”
Emily tore open the envelope.
Jason lunged toward her.
“Don’t.”
I stepped between them.
“Touch that envelope and I swear I’m calling the police myself.”
Diane gave a bitter smile.
“You already attacked me.”
“You dragged my daughter by her hair.”
“She mouthed off.”
“She is seven!”
Robert shouted so loudly that everyone froze.
“Diane, shut your mouth.”
I had never heard him speak to her that way.
Emily pulled out several pages.
Her fingers were shaking.
“This report was completed two days after Lily was born.”
She looked at me.
“I found it three weeks ago while helping Mom clear out the office.”
Jason whispered, “That’s impossible.”
Emily handed the first page to me.
I barely understood the numbers.
Then I saw one sentence.
Probability of paternity: 99.9998%.
My knees weakened.
I looked from the paper to Jason.
“He is her father.”
Emily nodded.
“Yes.”
Jason grabbed the paper.
He read it.
Then read it again.
“No.”
He looked at Emily.
“No. Mine said zero.”
Diane turned toward the house.
Robert blocked her path.
“Where are you going?”
“Move.”
“No.”
Jason held the report like it was burning his hands.
“My report said I was excluded.”
Emily’s face hardened.
“Because the one you received was fake.”
Silence.
Complete silence.
I heard the hum of the air conditioner.
The rustle of palm leaves.
Lily’s tiny sniffles against my shirt.
Then Jason looked at his mother.
“Tell me she’s lying.”
Diane folded her arms.
“I don’t know what Emily thinks she found.”
Jason stepped closer.
“Tell me.”
“I don’t have to explain myself.”
“You told me Sarah cheated.”
“She probably did.”
“You showed me a DNA report.”
“You were emotional. I helped you.”
“You told me Lily wasn’t mine.”
Diane’s face twisted.
“She shouldn’t have been.”
That sentence seemed to shock even her.
Robert stared at his wife.
“What does that mean?”
Diane said nothing.
Emily reached into the envelope again.
“There’s more.”
She removed a folded letter.
“I found this with the report.”
Jason read the handwriting before I did.
“Mom.”
It was Diane’s handwriting.
Emily opened it.
“It’s addressed to someone named Marlene.”
Diane suddenly lunged.
She grabbed for the letter.
Emily jumped backward.
Robert caught Diane around the waist.
“Give me that!”
Diane screamed.
That was when I knew.
Not suspected.
Knew.
Whatever had happened seven years earlier had not been an accident.
Emily began reading.
“Marlene, thank you for fixing the situation before Jason saw the real results. He cannot know that child is his.”
Jason staggered backward.
His mouth opened.
No words came out.
Emily continued.
“I’ll bring the rest of the money Friday.”
Robert released Diane like she had burned him.
He stared at her.
“You paid someone to falsify a DNA test?”
Diane pointed at me.
“She trapped him!”
“With his own child?” Emily shouted.
“You don’t understand.”
“No,” I said quietly. “I think we’re starting to.”
Jason sank into a patio chair.
His eyes were fixed on Lily.
For seven years, he had believed she wasn’t his daughter.
For seven years, he had hidden that from me.
For seven years, Diane had watched him raise Lily while knowing the truth.
I wanted to scream.
Instead, I looked down at my daughter.
Her cheek was dirty from the ground.
A red mark had appeared near her temple.
There were strands of hair stuck to her wet face.
That became more important than every secret around me.
I picked her up.
“I’m taking Lily to the hospital.”
Jason jumped up.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“Sarah—”
“No.”
His face crumpled.
“She’s my daughter.”
“She was your daughter this morning too.”
He froze.
I could barely get the words out without crying.
“And you stood there while your mother made her feel like she wasn’t.”
“I didn’t know Mom would—”
“You knew she believed Lily didn’t belong.”
He looked down.
That told me everything.
“You knew.”
“She never said anything in front of Lily before.”
“That doesn’t make it better.”
Behind us, Diane screamed at Emily to give her the papers.
Robert told someone to call the police.
Jason tried to touch my arm.
I stepped away.
“Don’t.”
Lily lifted her face from my shoulder.
Her voice was tiny.
“Mommy?”
“Yes, baby?”
She looked directly at Jason.
“Is Daddy really my daddy?”
Jason broke.
He covered his mouth as tears ran down his face.
I kissed Lily’s forehead.
“Yes.”
My voice shook.
“Yes, sweetheart. He is.”
She stared at him for another second.
Then she whispered something that made the entire yard go silent.
“Then why did Grandma hate me?”
May you like
I had no answer.
And neither did Jason.
