[CHAPTER 2]
I carried Sophie away from that porch without asking Daniel's permission.
Not that I needed it.
She wrapped both arms around my neck and buried her face against me.
Every few steps, she whispered the same thing.
“Don't leave me.”
“I won't.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Behind me, Daniel called my name.
I kept walking.
“Claire!”
I reached my car.
“Please stop.”
I opened the back door.
Sophie refused to let go.
“Sweetheart, I need to put you in your seat.”
“No.”
Her fingers tightened.
“Mommy, no.”
My heart broke all over again.
“Okay.”
I climbed into the back seat with her.
Daniel reached the car.
“Claire, we need to talk.”
I looked at him through the open door.
There was a red mark on his mother's face.
There was a red mark on mine too.
But only one of us had been defending a child.
“Call the police,” I said.
Daniel blinked.
“What?”
“Call them.”
“Claire.”
“Your mother chained a five-year-old to a porch.”
His jaw tightened.
“I know.”
“And you hit me when I tried to protect her.”
His face changed.
“I shouldn't have done that.”
“No.”
“I lost control.”
“You chose.”
He stared at me.
“Don't do this.”
“Do what?”
“Turn one terrible moment into the end of our marriage.”
I looked down at Sophie.
She was shaking.
“One terrible moment?”
Daniel followed my gaze.
His expression collapsed.
Before he could speak, sirens sounded.
Someone else had called.
Three police cars pulled into Margaret's driveway.
The party guests scattered from the windows.
Margaret appeared near the front entrance.
She looked furious.
Not scared anymore.
Furious.
Two officers approached me first.
One saw Sophie.
He crouched beside the car.
“Ma'am, is this the child?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
I told him.
Every word.
The chain.
Margaret.
Daniel.
The slap.
When I said Daniel had struck me, his face went still.
Daniel stood several feet away.
He didn't deny it.
Another officer went toward Margaret.
She immediately started crying.
I had never seen Margaret cry in nine years.
Not at Richard's funeral.
Not when Daniel's company nearly collapsed.
Not when Sophie spent three days in the hospital with pneumonia.
But now tears streamed perfectly down her cheeks.
“She attacked me,” Margaret said.
I laughed bitterly.
The officer looked toward me.
Margaret pointed.
“She came onto my property, became violent, and struck me.”
“What about the child?”
Margaret hesitated.
“The chain was symbolic.”
The officer stared at her.
“Symbolic?”
“It wasn't tight.”
I looked at Sophie's waist.
A dark red line crossed her dress where the chain had pressed against her.
“She couldn't leave.”
“She needed a timeout.”
One of the party guests gasped.
The officer's expression changed.
“You restrained a five-year-old with a chain?”
Margaret lifted her chin.
“She was never in danger.”
Sophie whimpered.
The officer looked at her.
Then at Margaret.
“No more questions right now.”
An ambulance arrived.
I went with Sophie.
Daniel tried to follow.
I stopped him.
“No.”
“Claire, I'm her father.”
“You remembered that too late.”
He flinched.
“Please.”
Sophie looked up from my arms.
When she saw Daniel, she pressed herself harder against me.
Daniel saw it.
He stopped.
For the first time that afternoon, he looked truly destroyed.
At the hospital, a pediatric nurse examined Sophie.
No broken bones.
No serious injuries.
But bruising had already started around her waist.
There were small marks on her wrists.
“What caused these?” the doctor asked.
Sophie looked at me.
“You can tell her.”
Sophie swallowed.
“Grandma grabbed me.”
The room became painfully quiet.
“When?”
“Before the chain.”
I felt sick.
The doctor lowered herself to Sophie's level.
“Can you tell me what happened?”
Sophie nodded slowly.
“I went in Grandma's office.”
“Why?”
“I wanted crayons.”
“What happened then?”
“I saw a picture.”
“What picture?”
Sophie frowned, trying to remember.
“A man.”
My stomach tightened.
“What man?”
“He looked like Daddy.”
I stared at her.
The doctor glanced at me.
“What did you do with the picture, Sophie?”
“I took it.”
“Why?”
“I wanted to show Daddy.”
I felt cold.
“What happened when Grandma saw you?”
Sophie's mouth began trembling.
“She got mad.”
I squeezed her hand.
“She said I was snooping.”
Sophie started crying.
“She said I ruin everything.”
“Oh, baby.”
“She took the picture.”
“Then what?”
“She put me outside.”
“With the chain?”
Sophie nodded.
“She said I had bad blood.”
My chest tightened.
“What else did she say?”
Sophie rubbed her nose.
“She said Daddy had bad blood too.”
I stopped breathing.
The doctor looked at me.
“Mrs. Bennett?”
I barely heard her.
“Sophie, did Grandma say anything else about Daddy?”
Sophie nodded.
“She said he wasn't supposed to know.”
“Know what?”
“I don't know.”
She looked terrified.
“I just wanted crayons.”
I pulled her into my arms.
“You didn't do anything wrong.”
The doctor documented everything.
Photographs.
Bruises.
Sophie's statements.
A social worker came next.
Then a detective.
By the time Daniel arrived, it was nearly dark.
I was sitting beside Sophie's hospital bed.
She had finally fallen asleep.
Daniel stood in the doorway.
He looked older.
“Can I come in?”
I didn't answer.
He stepped inside anyway.
“I gave the police a statement.”
“Good.”
“I told them I hit you.”
I looked at him.
He lowered his eyes.
“I told them everything.”
“What about your mother?”
“She has an attorney.”
“Of course she does.”
“She says you provoked her.”
I almost laughed.
Daniel quickly added, “I don't believe her.”
That didn't make me feel better.
“You believed her this afternoon.”
He had no answer.
I looked at Sophie's sleeping face.
“You heard her begging.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
“I know.”
“You looked away.”
His voice broke.
“I know.”
I had never heard Daniel sound like that.
Part of me wanted to comfort him.
That was the part of me I hated most in that moment.
I had spent years making his pain my responsibility.
Not anymore.
Daniel removed the folded DNA report from his jacket.
“I called the lab.”
I looked at him.
“Why?”
“I wanted to confirm it.”
Anger flashed through me.
“You still doubted me?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
He swallowed.
“Because when I gave them my identification number, the technician said something strange.”
My anger faded.
“What?”
“She asked whether I knew someone named Victor Hale.”
I stared at him.
The name meant nothing to me.
Apparently it meant something to Daniel.
His hands started shaking.
“Victor Hale was my father's business partner.”
“Richard's?”
“Yes.”
“Why would a DNA lab ask about him?”
Daniel looked toward Sophie.
Then back at me.
“Because apparently Victor Hale submitted his DNA to the same genetic database two years ago.”
I felt the room shrink.
“And?”
Daniel's face went completely pale.
“The technician said the system flagged us as a close biological match.”
I whispered, “How close?”
May you like
Daniel looked at me.
“Parent and child.”
