Chapter 14 - THE WORST THING DANIEL EVER DID
I looked at Daniel.
He looked like he couldn’t breathe.
“Tell me she’s lying.”
Silence.
“Daniel.”
He closed his eyes.
“I gave her a sample.”
The courtroom seemed to disappear.
“When?”
“Lily was six months old.”
My stomach twisted.
“You tested her?”
“My mother kept saying Lily didn’t look like me.”
I stared at him.
“And you believed her.”
“No. I…”
He stopped.
There was no good ending to that sentence.
“I wanted to prove her wrong.”
“So you gave her Lily’s DNA without telling me.”
“Yes.”
“And she used it.”
“I didn’t know she switched anything.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
His face crumpled.
“I know.”
For years, I had blamed Margaret for everything.
It would have been easy to keep doing that.
But Daniel had opened the door.
Margaret walked through it.
That truth hurt differently.
Daniel stepped closer.
I backed away.
“No.”
“Emma.”
“Not now.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry doesn’t erase seven years.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying you know.”
My voice cracked.
“You don’t know what it felt like raising Lily while your family whispered that I cheated.”
He didn’t answer.
“You don’t know what it did to her when you missed school concerts because your mother said I was manipulating you.”
“I was a coward.”
“Yes.”
The word hit him.
I meant it.
“I was.”
He nodded slowly.
“And if the only thing I ever get to do now is admit that, then I’ll admit it every day.”
That stopped me.
No defense.
No excuse.
Just ownership.
I didn’t forgive him.
But I heard him.
The criminal investigation against Margaret continued.
Authorities didn’t charge her with Samuel’s death because Claire’s evidence couldn’t prove she caused it.
But the reopened case exposed obstruction and bribery connected to the investigation.
The financial fraud was stronger.
So was the evidence tampering.
So was what happened to Lily.
Colin accepted a plea agreement and agreed to testify.
Victor Dane cooperated too.
Margaret’s world became very small very quickly.
Richard moved out of the mansion.
He sold it six months later.
“I don’t want Lily remembering the porch every time she visits me,” he said.
He bought a smaller house near a lake.
Lily approved because it had ducks.
Claire and Marcus began the awkward work of becoming siblings.
Daniel joined them sometimes.
Samuel’s estate litigation would take years.
Nobody cared as much as Margaret expected them to.
They had spent enough of their lives worshiping money.
One afternoon, Daniel came to pick Lily up for ice cream.
He stopped at my door.
“I’m going to therapy.”
“Okay.”
“I should have done it years ago.”
“Yes.”
He smiled sadly.
“I deserved that.”
Probably.
Lily ran downstairs.
“Daddy!”
He lit up.
That was the part I trusted.
Not his words.
The way he showed up every Tuesday.
Every Saturday.
Every school meeting.
Every time Lily needed him.
As they left, my phone rang.
Richard.
“Emma.”
Something in his voice made me sit down.
“What happened?”
“Margaret wants to see Lily.”
“No.”
“I already told her no.”
“Then why are you calling?”
“Because she gave her attorney something.”
My chest tightened.
“What?”
“A letter.”
“From who?”
Richard paused.
“From Margaret.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It was written seven years ago.”
The year Lily was born.
Richard continued.
“And it begins with the words…”
May you like
His voice dropped.
If anything ever happens to me, Lily must never learn why I hated her.
