Chapter 4 - Not One of Us
I crouched carefully in front of Emma.
“What did Grandma say?”
Daniel immediately interrupted.
“Claire, don’t question her.”
“I asked Emma.”
The little girl looked toward Margaret for permission.
That alone told me how much control Margaret had over her.
Finally, Emma whispered, “Grandma said Lily isn’t really one of us.”
My stomach dropped.
Daniel looked horrified.
“Mom, what the hell did you tell her?”
Margaret’s composure cracked for the first time.
“She misunderstood.”
Emma shook her head.
“You said Daddy should only have one real daughter.”
Silence.
I slowly stood.
Daniel stared at his mother.
Even he hadn’t known that part.
Margaret tried to recover.
“She’s four. Children repeat things incorrectly.”
But I remembered every strange comment Margaret had made since Lily was born.
Her disappointment when Lily had my dark-blond hair instead of Daniel’s brown.
Her constant remarks about Lily “not looking Morgan enough.”
Her insistence that Daniel get a paternity test after Lily was born.
Daniel had refused.
Or so he had told me.
I looked at him.
“Did you ever test Lily?”
His hesitation lasted less than a second.
It was enough.
“Daniel?”
“I didn’t want to.”
My chest tightened.
“That wasn’t my question.”
He rubbed both hands over his face.
“My mother arranged one.”
The room tilted.
“You let someone test our baby behind my back?”
“I told Mom to drop it afterward.”
“Afterward?”
Daniel looked toward the floor.
I suddenly understood.
There had been a result.
“Where is it?”
Margaret stepped forward.
“It doesn’t matter.”
I turned toward her.
“If it didn’t matter, you wouldn’t be terrified right now.”
Lily whimpered against my shoulder.
I held her closer.
Daniel finally whispered, “The test said I wasn’t Lily’s biological father.”
For a moment, I forgot how to breathe.
Then I looked at Margaret.
And she smiled.
It was tiny.
Almost invisible.
But I saw it.
That was when my shock became suspicion.
Because I had never cheated on my husband.
May you like
Not once.
👉 The DNA result said Daniel wasn’t Lily’s father—but I knew with absolute certainty that something about that test was impossible.
