Chapter 10
Poppy did not understand why adults kept crying around her.
I hated that most.
She deserved pancakes.
Cartoons.
A lost tooth.
Not DNA reports and family secrets.
I took her to the park before the next meeting.
She climbed halfway up the slide and looked down at me.
“Is Grandma in trouble?”
“Yes.”
“Because she was mean?”
“Yes. And because she may have done illegal things.”
Poppy nodded like this made sense.
“Can I still love Daddy?”
My heart cracked.
“Always.”
“But he lied.”
“Yes.”
“Can people lie and love you?”
I took a breath.
“Yes. But love does not make lying okay.”
She slid down and landed in my arms.
“I don’t want to be the heir.”
I froze.
“Who taught you that word?”
“Grandma.”
Of course.
I held her tighter.
“You don’t have to be anything except Poppy.”
The full DNA results arrived that afternoon.
Poppy’s birth mother was a woman named Elena Ruiz.
Her biological father was unknown in the file.
But one marker linked her to Robert Bennett’s line.
Not Grant’s.
Claire’s.
Lydia explained carefully.
“If this is accurate, Poppy is Claire’s biological niece.”
Claire covered her mouth.
I stared at my daughter through the office glass, where she was drawing suns with Lydia’s assistant.
Poppy had been family by love.
And, unknown to everyone but maybe Margaret, by blood too.
Margaret had spent years rejecting a child who carried the Bennett blood she worshipped.
But that was not the important part.
The important part was Elena Ruiz.
Poppy’s birth mother.
Her consent form looked forged.
Detective Collins found her last known address.
Abandoned.
May you like
Neighbors said Elena vanished six years ago.
Three days after giving birth.
