Chapter 6
Dad sat down like his legs had disappeared.
I could still hear Mom crying through the phone.
Nora took it gently and ended the call.
The hotel room felt too small.
Too bright.
Too full of lies.
“Dad,” I said.
He covered his face.
“I found out when you were five.”
My chest hurt.
“Found out what?”
He looked up.
His eyes were wet.
“Carol had an affair before you were born. I suspected. I did a test years later.”
“And you never told me?”
“You were my daughter.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It was the only answer that mattered to me.”
I started crying again.
Pregnancy made every emotion feel too large for my skin.
“Who is he?”
Dad looked away.
“I don’t know.”
I did not believe him.
Not fully.
Before I could ask again, Nora spoke.
“Diane used that secret to pressure Carol.”
Dad nodded slowly.
“Carol always feared losing Emily.”
I almost laughed.
“So she helped someone take my child?”
The cruelty of it was unbearable.
Mom had been so afraid I would stop being hers that she signed papers letting Diane take my baby from me.
Nora said, “We need to know how Diane learned this.”
Dad’s phone buzzed.
A text from an unknown number.
He read it and went pale again.
He handed it to Nora.
I saw only one sentence.
Tell Emily to stop, or everyone learns who her real father is.
Attached was a photo.
My mother.
Young.
Standing beside a man I recognized.
Dr. Steven Vale.
The doctor who signed the fake affidavit.
My mother’s doctor.
The man who claimed I was unstable.
May you like
Nora’s face hardened.
“Well,” she said. “Now we know why he lied.”
