Chapter 2 - 99.9998 PERCENT
Daniel read the number twice.
Then a third time.
“99.9998 percent.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
My knees almost gave out, even though I already knew what the page said.
The laboratory concluded Daniel Bennett could not be excluded as Lily's biological father and calculated a probability of paternity greater than 99.9998 percent.
Daniel looked at Lily.
Then at me.
“Claire…”
“Unlock her first.”
He moved immediately.
“Where's the key?”
Margaret said nothing.
I stepped toward her.
“Where is the key?”
“She was running toward the pool.”
“There is a locked pool gate.”
“She wouldn't listen.”
“So you chained a two-year-old to furniture?”
Margaret's jaw tightened.
Daniel reached for her handbag.
She pulled it back.
That answered the question.
He took it from her, opened the side pocket, and found a small brass key.
Lily cried when the pressure came off her ankle.
I lifted her into my arms.
She wrapped herself around my neck so tightly I could feel her little heart pounding.
Daniel touched her back.
She recoiled.
He froze.
That reaction cut straight through him.
Three days of suspicion had consequences even a two-year-old could feel.
Someone called the police.
Someone else called an ambulance after seeing Lily's ankle.
Margaret started ordering guests to leave.
Nobody listened.
Then Daniel turned toward me.
“The other test said zero.”
“I know.”
“I saw it.”
“You saw a piece of paper your mother gave you.”
His face changed.
That was the second truth of the day.
He hadn't received the original report directly.
Margaret had.
Six weeks earlier, she had convinced him to do a private home paternity test without telling me.
He admitted it right there beside the patio.
“I thought she was being paranoid,” he said. “She kept saying Lily didn't look like me.”
I stared at him.
“So you secretly tested our child?”
“I wanted to prove her wrong.”
“And when the result came back?”
He swallowed.
“Mom printed it.”
My anger shifted shape.
Not smaller.
Sharper.
“Did you log into the lab account yourself?”
“No.”
“Did you call the lab?”
“No.”
“Did you verify anything?”
His silence answered me.
Margaret stepped between us.
“Daniel doesn't owe you an apology for wanting certainty.”
I looked at her.
“No. He owes me one for trusting you more than his wife.”
The police arrived.
An officer photographed Lily's ankle.
Another began interviewing witnesses separately.
Margaret immediately changed her story.
She said the chain was a temporary safety measure because Lily had repeatedly approached the pool.
Three guests contradicted her.
One had recorded part of the gathering on her phone.
In the video, Margaret stood beside Lily while guests watched.
Her voice came through clearly.
“When Daniel accepts she isn't his, Claire will finally stop forcing this child into our family.”
The chain was already on Lily's ankle.
Daniel watched the video once.
Then he sat down.
“I never told her I accepted the test.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
“I told Mom I needed to talk to you before I believed anything.”
Margaret's face hardened.
That changed another assumption.
She hadn't chained Lily because Daniel had rejected her.
She had done it because he hadn't.
The humiliation was pressure.
A public spectacle designed to push him toward the conclusion she wanted.
The paramedic examining Lily asked whether we wanted transport for imaging.
I said yes.
Daniel came with us.
Margaret tried to follow.
The officer stopped her.
For the first time, she was staying behind.
May you like
And we were leaving.
📖 At the hospital, Daniel called the first DNA company himself—and learned the “zero percent” report Margaret gave him had never been issued by their laboratory. 👇
