Chapter 4 - The Lie About Lucy’s Father
Claire read Daniel’s text three times.
Lucy isn’t legally mine.
For one irrational second, she wondered if Sloane knew some impossible secret Claire herself didn’t know.
Then anger replaced shock.
Daniel was Lucy’s biological father.
There had never been uncertainty.
Claire and Daniel had been married for three years before Lucy was born.
Daniel had been in the delivery room.
His name was on the birth certificate.
He had cut the cord with shaking hands and cried so hard the nurse had laughed.
There was no mystery.
Which meant Sloane was lying.
Again.
But this lie was different.
This one was aimed directly at Daniel’s deepest fear.
Losing his daughter.
Claire called Andrea immediately.
The attorney answered on the second ring.
“What happened?”
Claire explained.
Andrea was quiet for a moment.
“Do not react to the claim.”
“It’s nonsense.”
“I believe you. That doesn’t mean it’s random.”
“What do you mean?”
“Manipulative people rarely choose lies without a purpose. Why would she want Daniel questioning paternity right now?”
Claire understood.
“To make him doubt everything.”
“Exactly.”
Andrea continued.
“And if she has fabricated documents…”
Claire’s stomach dropped.
Ten minutes later Daniel called.
He was sitting in his car several blocks from his house.
“What happened after the phone disconnected?” Claire asked.
“She tried to take it.”
“Your phone?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She thought I was recording.”
“Were you?”
“No.”
“You should have been.”
“I know.”
He sounded exhausted.
“She told me you admitted before the divorce that Lucy might not be mine.”
Claire almost shouted.
“I never said that.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
The answer came quickly this time.
Claire softened by one degree.
“What else?”
“She says she has proof.”
“What proof?”
“A paternity report.”
Claire went silent.
Daniel continued.
“She showed me a PDF on her laptop.”
Claire’s fingers tightened around the phone.
“What did it say?”
“That there’s zero probability I’m Lucy’s biological father.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“And you believe it?”
“No.”
A pause.
“Not anymore.”
The last two words hurt anyway.
Claire looked through the window toward the backyard where Rachel and Lucy were drawing with sidewalk chalk.
“Where did she claim the DNA came from?”
“My toothbrush and Lucy’s hairbrush.”
“That is insane.”
“I know.”
“She secretly tested our child?”
“That’s what she says.”
Claire breathed slowly.
“This is why we need lawyers involved.”
“I’m going to get an official test.”
Claire hated that he had to.
But she understood.
“Fine.”
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For even having one second where I wondered.”
Claire said nothing.
Daniel continued.
“She’s good at this.”
“No.”
“What?”
“She’s practiced at it.”
There was a difference.
And suddenly Claire wanted to know something neither of them had asked.
Who had Sloane been before Daniel?
That afternoon Andrea filed for an emergency modification of custody conditions.
Not to remove Daniel.
To ensure that Sloane had no unsupervised contact with Lucy while the matter was investigated.
Daniel signed the request voluntarily.
That mattered.
More than Claire expected.
At four, he came to the house to see Lucy.
Dr. Elena Morris had advised them not to question the child about details repeatedly.
So Daniel didn’t.
He sat on the living-room floor.
Lucy stayed close to Claire at first.
Daniel looked at his daughter.
“Hey, Lucy Bug.”
She looked down.
He swallowed.
“I owe you an apology.”
Lucy glanced up.
“I should’ve listened when you were scared.”
She said nothing.
Daniel’s voice trembled.
“And I should’ve asked you what happened last night before I got upset with Mommy.”
Lucy picked at her sleeve.
“Are you mad at me?”
Daniel’s face crumpled.
“No.”
“Because I ruined your wedding?”
“No, baby.”
“You wanted it to be perfect.”
Daniel moved closer but stopped before touching her.
“You didn’t ruin anything.”
Lucy whispered, “Sloane said you’d be happier if I stopped acting like a baby.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Claire looked away.
When he opened them, tears were visible.
“Sloane was wrong.”
“She said you told her.”
“I didn’t.”
Lucy stared at him.
“She lies?”
Children had a way of cutting through complicated adult language.
Daniel nodded.
“Yes.”
“About me?”
“Yes.”
“About Mommy?”
“Yes.”
Lucy absorbed this.
Then asked, “Why?”
Daniel had no answer.
Claire stepped in.
“Sometimes grown-ups make very bad choices because they want things to happen their way.”
Lucy looked at Daniel.
“Are you still married to her?”
Silence filled the room.
Daniel removed his wedding ring.
“No.”
Technically, the marriage still existed.
Emotionally, it ended there.
Lucy stared at the ring in his palm.
Then she crossed the carpet and climbed into Daniel’s lap.
He held her.
And Claire watched her ex-husband cry into their daughter’s hair.
For a few minutes, the battle disappeared.
There was only a father realizing how close he had come to becoming exactly what someone else had told his child he was.
Temporary.
By evening, the official DNA test was arranged.
The results would take several days.
Claire expected Sloane to call.
She didn’t.
Instead, Patricia Wells did.
Sloane’s mother.
Claire nearly ignored the number.
Then she answered.
“Claire.”
Patricia sounded remarkably composed.
“You need to stop this.”
Claire laughed.
“That’s your opening?”
“My daughter made mistakes.”
“Your daughter locked a six-year-old in a room.”
“She was overwhelmed.”
“She forged messages.”
“You have no proof Sloane wrote them.”
“She forged a note from Lucy’s father.”
“Again, an accusation.”
Claire’s voice cooled.
“Why are you calling?”
“Because Daniel is destroying his marriage over a misunderstanding.”
“The marriage destroyed itself.”
“Do you enjoy this?”
Claire almost hung up.
Then Patricia said, “You always wanted him back.”
“No.”
“Yes, you did.”
“Patricia, you’ve met me four times.”
“I know women like you.”
Claire smiled without humor.
“And I’m beginning to know women like you.”
Silence.
Then Patricia changed tactics.
“If you proceed with this custody filing, certain private information may become public.”
Claire’s pulse quickened.
“What information?”
“The reason Daniel divorced you.”
Claire frowned.
“Daniel didn’t divorce me. We filed jointly.”
“Is that what he told everyone?”
Claire felt a strange chill.
“What are you talking about?”
Patricia sighed dramatically.
“You really have no idea.”
“About what?”
“Ask Daniel why his attorney drafted divorce papers six months before you separated.”
Claire froze.
“That never happened.”
“Ask him.”
The call ended.
Claire stared at her phone.
She didn’t want to believe another word coming from Sloane’s family.
But curiosity had already taken hold.
When Daniel returned later with takeout for Lucy, Claire waited until their daughter went upstairs.
Then she asked.
“Did you have divorce papers drafted six months before we separated?”
Daniel stopped unpacking containers.
“What?”
“Answer me.”
“No.”
“Patricia said you did.”
His expression changed.
Not guilt.
Confusion.
“Claire, the first time I spoke with an attorney was after we agreed to separate.”
She watched him carefully.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“Then why would Patricia know anything about divorce papers?”
Daniel slowly sat down.
“I don’t know.”
Claire thought about the forged texts.
The fake paternity report.
The handwritten notes.
Then a new possibility entered her mind.
“When did you first meet Sloane?”
Daniel answered automatically.
“Three months after we separated.”
Claire shook her head.
“No. When did you first meet her?”
He frowned.
“At a charity event.”
“When?”
“I don’t know. A year before that?”
Claire remembered the event.
A children’s hospital fundraiser.
She had been there.
Sloane had been part of the planning committee.
At the time Claire and Daniel were struggling.
Nothing dramatic.
Work stress.
Money arguments.
New-parent exhaustion.
Normal cracks that might have healed.
Claire slowly sat down.
“Daniel.”
“What?”
“What if this didn’t start eight months ago?”
He looked at her.
“What are you saying?”
“What if Sloane was involved before our divorce?”
“That’s impossible.”
“Is it?”
Daniel went still.
Claire continued.
“Did she ever contact you before we separated?”
He looked away.
That was answer enough.
“Daniel.”
“It was nothing.”
“What was nothing?”
“She sent me messages after the fundraiser.”
Claire’s heartbeat accelerated.
“What kind?”
“Friendly.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you delete them?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you were already upset that night and I didn’t want you thinking something happened.”
Claire laughed in disbelief.
“You deleted messages from another woman so I wouldn’t think something happened?”
“Nothing happened.”
“But she was there.”
Daniel lowered his eyes.
Claire stood.
“Go home.”
“Claire.”
“Not to Sloane. Wherever you’re staying.”
“She never caused our divorce.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.”
“No, Daniel.”
Claire looked at the twenty-three notes on her table.
“We have just discovered that this woman spent months manufacturing conversations, forging handwriting and telling our daughter that I was the reason she could lose her father.”
Her voice dropped.
“So forgive me if I’m no longer willing to assume she started doing this after you put a ring on her finger.”
Daniel stared at her.
Then his phone buzzed.
A message from Andrea.
He opened it.
His face changed.
“What?”
Daniel handed Claire the phone.
Andrea had sent a photograph of a document she had just obtained from an anonymous email.
A petition for divorce.
Prepared three years earlier.
Six months before Claire and Daniel separated.
The document listed Daniel as the petitioner.
Claire as the respondent.
And at the bottom appeared an electronic signature.
Daniel Hayes.
Daniel stared at it.
“I never signed this.”
Claire’s eyes moved to the attorney listed on the document.
Wells, Porter & Lang.
Wells.
Sloane’s mother’s maiden name.
Claire looked at Daniel.
“This didn’t start eight months ago.”
Daniel’s face went white.
“No.”
May you like
Claire looked again at the three-year-old divorce petition.
“It started before we ever knew there was a war.”
