Chapter 2 - The Woman Before Claire
At the hospital, Claire barely left Lily’s side.
Doctors examined the baby carefully and kept her under observation.
When they finally told Claire Lily was stable, her knees nearly gave out.
Daniel reached toward her.
Claire stepped away.
“Don’t touch me.”
“Claire—”
“Who is Megan Cole?”
Daniel looked toward Lily’s hospital crib.
“She was someone I dated.”
“When?”
“Before you.”
Claire nodded slowly.
“And Ryan?”
Silence.
“Daniel.”
He rubbed his face.
“Megan told me Ryan was mine.”
Claire felt the floor disappear beneath her.
“You have a ten-year-old son?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“My mother arranged a paternity test after Ryan was born.”
“And?”
“It said I wasn’t his father.”
Claire stared at him.
For one fragile second, that explanation almost made sense.
Then she remembered the photograph.
“You were with Ryan three years ago.”
Daniel looked away.
Claire stepped closer.
“If you believed he wasn’t yours, why were you standing beside him three years ago?”
“Megan contacted me.”
“And you saw him?”
“Yes.”
“How many times?”
Daniel hesitated.
That hesitation was becoming Claire’s most hated sound.
“How many?”
“Maybe nine.”
Claire laughed once.
Coldly.
“Nine secret meetings?”
“I was confused.”
“You were married.”
“I know.”
“We had Lily on the way.”
“I know.”
“And you never thought your wife deserved to know you were secretly meeting a child who might be yours?”
Daniel lowered his head.
Claire remembered something else.
Three years earlier, Daniel had begun withdrawing cash.
$1,500.
Sometimes twice a month.
He claimed an employee was going through financial trouble.
Claire stared at him.
“The cash.”
Daniel’s shoulders stiffened.
“What?”
“The withdrawals.”
He said nothing.
“They were for Megan?”
“For Ryan.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Not because Daniel had helped a child.
Because he had deliberately built a second reality behind her back.
“Why did you stop seeing him?”
Daniel looked uncomfortable.
“My mother said Megan was using Ryan to manipulate me.”
“Evelyn?”
“Yes.”
Claire almost laughed.
Of course.
Evelyn Bennett had always been obsessed with the family name.
The company.
Appearances.
Bloodlines.
“What exactly did she tell you?”
Daniel looked toward the floor.
“That Megan wanted access to the Bennett money.”
“And you believed her?”
“I wanted to.”
Claire stared at him.
That answer was more honest.
And uglier.
Then Claire’s phone rang.
The police had located Ryan’s maternal aunt.
Rebecca Cole.
She wanted to speak with Claire.
Not Daniel.
Claire asked why.
The detective paused.
“Ms. Cole says she has thirty-seven letters her sister sent Daniel.”
Claire looked at her husband.
Daniel’s face changed.
Claire’s voice turned icy.
“Thirty-seven?”
He whispered:
May you like
“I never got thirty-seven letters.”
👉 Daniel claimed Megan’s letters never reached him—but every envelope carried the handwriting of someone Claire knew very well.
