Chapter 20 - The Paternity Trap
The words hit Daniel like a sledgehammer to the chest. He stood motionless in the freezing rain, the world spinning around him, while Victoria continued to laugh like a demon through the iron bars until the distant sirens of state troopers began to wail through the night.
Within ten minutes, three patrol cruisers surrounded Victoria’s vehicle, forcing her to the ground and placing her in handcuffs. She didn't fight them; she smiled directly into the rain, screaming Daniel’s name, daring him to look into the truth.
Back inside the warm kitchen, Daniel sat in complete darkness, his wet clothes dripping onto the floorboards.
*She isn't yours.*
The thought was a venomous parasite burrowing into his brain. Was it possible? Victoria had traveled extensively during the second year of their marriage. She had spent months between Paris and New York while Daniel was buried in corporate restructuring. Had Lily been the product of an affair? Was Victoria's cruelty toward the child rooted in a sick, twisted resentment of the lie she had lived?
Daniel walked slowly up the stairs to Lily’s bedroom. He cracked the door open. Lily was asleep, curled up beneath her pastel blankets, holding the worn rabbit against her chest. Her small, innocent features looked so peaceful in the dim glow of her nightlight.
Tears welled in Daniel’s eyes.
He stepped inside, knelt beside the small bed, and gently touched the child’s soft hair.
"It doesn't matter," Daniel whispered, his voice trembling with profound certainty. "Even if the blood isn't mine, the love is. You are my daughter, Lily. Nothing she says will ever change that."
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He stood up, his jaw set like iron. If Victoria was attempting to use a paternity challenge to invalidate his parental custody rights and throw Lily into foster care or a custody dispute with an unknown third party, Daniel would destroy every resource Victoria possessed before allowing that to happen.
***
