Chapter 6
Helen shut the door in Margaret’s face.
Then she called the police.
Margaret did not leave.
She stood on the porch and shouted through the glass.
“You think the truth will help them? It will ruin them.”
Emma began crying.
Ava held her hand.
That tiny gesture broke something in all of us.
Two little girls who had known each other for one hour already understood comfort better than the adults who created them.
Officers escorted Margaret away for trespassing.
But before she got into the patrol car, she looked at me and said, “Ask Daniel who begged me to fix the problem.”
I did not sleep that night.
Neither did Olivia.
We sat outside the girls’ room and listened to them breathe.
Emma whispered in her sleep once.
“Mommy.”
I went in and held her until she settled.
I did not care what any test said.
She was mine.
At 7:30 the next morning, Daniel came to my house.
Not Helen’s.
Mine.
He broke a side window and tried to take files from my office.
Mrs. Carter saw him and called 911.
By the time I arrived with police, Daniel was standing in my study with a box of documents in his arms.
He looked at me like I had betrayed him.
“You weren’t supposed to know.”
I stood in the doorway.
“Know what?”
He laughed, but his eyes were wild.
“That my mother cleaned up what you two would have destroyed.”
Olivia stepped beside me.
“What did we destroy?”
Daniel looked at both of us.
“You got pregnant at the same time.”
As if we had done it to him.
As if his lies were our inconvenience.
“I was going to lose everything,” he said. “My marriage, Olivia’s family money, Mom’s trust, the business loan.”
Helen’s voice came from behind us.
“So you lied to both women.”
Daniel pointed at her.
“You were never supposed to find out.”
Police moved closer.
Daniel clutched the box.
“Margaret said nobody needed to know if the paperwork matched.”
My body went numb.
“What paperwork?”
He looked at me.
Then at Olivia.
Then at the officers.
Finally, he whispered, “Custody paperwork.”
Not birth.
Custody.
Helen stepped forward.
“Daniel, did you alter hospital custody records?”
He said nothing.
Olivia covered her mouth.
I asked, “Did you switch our daughters?”
His face twisted.
“No.”
The answer came too fast.
Then his phone rang.
Margaret.
An officer took it and answered on speaker.
Margaret’s voice snapped through the room.
“Destroy the DNA notices before Sarah sees them. If she finds out Ava is hers, we lose everything.”
Olivia made a sound like the floor had opened.
I could not move.
May you like
Ava.
Mine.
