Chapter 2 - The Woman Daniel Never Mentioned
At the hospital, Lily received stitches.
The doctor assured Claire the injury was serious enough to require monitoring but was not life-threatening.
Claire cried from relief.
Then she remembered Daniel standing in the hallway.
She stopped crying.
“Mommy?”
Lily squeezed her hand.
“Yes, baby?”
“Why did that boy call Daddy ‘Dad’?”
Claire’s chest tightened.
“I don’t know yet.”
That was the truth.
Daniel waited until Lily fell asleep before approaching.
“Claire.”
She stood between him and the hospital bed.
“Who is Megan Cole?”
Daniel froze.
Ryan had mentioned his mother’s name to a social worker.
Claire had remembered it.
Daniel looked toward the floor.
“She was someone I dated before I met you.”
“And Ryan?”
His throat moved.
“Megan said he was mine.”
Claire stared at him.
“Was?”
“She got pregnant right before we broke up.”
Claire’s face tightened.
“Did you know?”
“Yes.”
“You knew you might have a child before we married?”
Daniel nodded.
“You knew while I was pregnant with Lily?”
“Yes.”
Claire turned away.
She pressed both hands against the windowsill.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“My mother had a paternity test done.”
Claire turned.
“What did it say?”
“That Ryan wasn’t mine.”
Relief tried to enter Claire’s body.
Then she remembered the photograph.
“So why were you standing beside him at his birthday three years ago?”
Daniel’s expression fell apart.
Claire walked toward him.
“You said the test proved he wasn’t yours.”
“Megan contacted me again.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
“And?”
“She said the original test was fake.”
Claire stared at him.
“And you believed her?”
“I didn’t know.”
“But you met Ryan.”
Daniel nodded.
“How many times?”
Silence.
“Daniel.”
“Maybe ten.”
Claire laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“You secretly met a boy who might be your son ten times?”
“I was trying to figure it out.”
“For three years?”
“No. It stopped after about eleven months.”
“Why?”
Daniel said nothing.
Claire already knew.
“Your mother.”
He looked at her.
Claire whispered, “Your mother made you stop.”
Daniel sat down.
“She said Megan was manipulating me.”
Claire remembered monthly cash withdrawals she had questioned years earlier.
“You told me you were helping an employee.”
Daniel’s eyes closed.
“The money was for Megan and Ryan.”
Claire felt something inside her break.
“You lied about a child.”
“I was scared.”
Claire’s eyes filled.
“No, Daniel. You were comfortable.”
He looked at her.
“You got to come home to your wife and daughter while another child waited for you.”
Daniel whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Claire shook her head.
“You don’t even know what you’re apologizing for yet.”
Then her phone rang.
It was the detective.
They had located Ryan’s aunt.
Rebecca Cole.
And Rebecca had asked to speak with Claire immediately.
May you like
She said she had something Daniel had spent years pretending didn’t exist.
👉 Claire was about to meet Ryan’s aunt—and the first thing Rebecca showed her made Daniel’s story about the paternity test begin to collapse.
