Chapter 1
“Grandma says Daddy’s real baby is coming soon.”
I froze with a basket of laundry in my hands.
Poppy sat on the edge of my bed, one pink flower clip hanging loose in her hair, her face too serious for a six-year-old.
“She said when he gets here, I won’t need Daddy’s room anymore.”
For a moment, I could not breathe.
Grant had been dead eight months.
I had spent every one of those months trying to protect my daughter from the wreckage he left behind.
The affair.
The pregnant mistress.
The inheritance fight.
Margaret Bennett’s cold little comments about blood.
Poppy was adopted.
Grant and I had chosen her when she was three days old.
He had cried harder than I did the first time she wrapped her tiny fingers around his thumb.
But after his funeral, Margaret stopped calling her granddaughter.
She called her “Audrey’s child.”
Or “the girl.”
Then Serena’s pregnancy became visible, and Margaret found a new word.
Heir.
I sat beside Poppy.
“Sweetheart, no baby can make you less loved.”
Poppy looked down.
“But Grandma owns part of the house.”
My hands went cold.
Margaret had owned part of it.
Past tense.
I had sold my father’s cabin, emptied my savings, refinanced everything, and paid her every dollar she demanded.
This house was mine now.
Poppy’s home.
Grant’s office was still locked upstairs, untouched because I could not bear to open it.
What I did not know then was that Margaret had already hired someone to ask about that office.
I did not know Serena would walk through my back door the next afternoon with Margaret beside her.
I did not know they were coming to search my dead husband’s files.
And I did not know the secret hidden in Grant’s desk would make the fight over “real family” look small.
Poppy leaned against me.
“Mommy, will Grandma make me leave?”
I held her tight.
“No,” I whispered. “Nobody will take your place.”
The next afternoon, Margaret opened my kitchen door without knocking.
Serena stood behind her, one hand on her swollen belly.
May you like
Margaret smiled at Poppy.
“Pack your things, child. The Bennett family is changing.”
