Chapter 3
I met Eric Collins at the police station.
Not alone.
Detective Harper sat beside me.
My attorney, Rebecca Sloan, joined by video.
Eric looked nervous.
He was around forty.
Ordinary clothes.
Ordinary face.
Nothing about him explained why he had entered my family’s life.
Harper began.
“How do you know Vanessa?”
“College.”
“How long ago?”
“Fifteen years.”
“Relationship?”
Eric hesitated.
“Yes.”
My stomach tightened.
Vanessa had told me she had barely dated before marrying Mason’s father.
Another lie.
“When did you reconnect?”
“Eight months ago.”
“Who contacted whom?”
“She contacted me.”
“Why?”
Eric looked at me.
“She said Lily was mine.”
I leaned forward.
“Sarah never knew you.”
“I know that now.”
“Then why did you believe Vanessa?”
“She showed me DNA results.”
Harper placed both hands on the table.
“What results?”
Eric pulled a folded copy from his wallet.
A paternity report.
My name was nowhere on it.
Eric Collins.
Lily Carter.
Probability of paternity: 99.8%.
I stared.
“That’s fake.”
Harper examined it.
The laboratory listed at the top existed.
Rebecca searched it remotely.
“Legitimate company.”
My skin went cold.
“How did Vanessa get Lily’s DNA?”
Eric answered quietly.
“Toothbrush.”
Rage hit me.
“She stole my daughter’s DNA?”
“She said she wanted proof before contacting me.”
I stood.
Harper motioned for me to sit.
“Daniel.”
I forced myself down.
Eric continued.
“She told me Sarah had an affair with me years ago.”
“But you never met Sarah.”
“She showed me photographs.”
“What photographs?”
“Me with a woman she said was Sarah.”
My stomach tightened.
He showed one.
The woman looked enough like Sarah to fool someone who had never known her.
But it wasn’t Sarah.
It was Vanessa.
Ten years younger.
Hair dyed brown.
Eric stared when I told him.
“That’s Vanessa?”
“Yes.”
His face collapsed.
“She manipulated me from the beginning.”
Harper asked, “What did she want from you?”
“At first, she said she wanted me to help get custody because Daniel was dangerous.”
I laughed bitterly.
“She was creating the danger.”
“I know that now.”
“When?”
“When Mason contacted me.”
I froze.
“Mason contacted you?”
Eric nodded.
“Yesterday.”
My stepson had done more than record his mother.
He had found Eric’s number and called him.
“What did he say?”
“He told me Lily was being denied food.”
Eric looked ashamed.
“That’s when I realized Vanessa wasn’t protecting her.”
Rebecca asked, “Did Vanessa mention Lily’s trust?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“About two months ago.”
“What did she say?”
“That Sarah stole money from her family and put it under Lily’s name.”
“That isn’t true.”
“I understand.”
Harper leaned forward.
“What was Vanessa’s plan?”
Eric rubbed his hands together.
“She wanted Daniel accused of neglect.”
“And then?”
“She said I would file a paternity claim.”
“And then?”
“She would support me.”
“Why?”
“She said after custody changed, we could petition for control of Lily’s trust because she was a minor.”
I stared at him.
“You were going to help steal from a five-year-old.”
Eric looked down.
“I believed I was protecting my daughter’s inheritance.”
“She isn’t your daughter.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
He looked up.
“I want another DNA test.”
So did I.
A court-approved test was arranged.
The result came back the next afternoon.
Eric Collins was not Lily’s father.
I was.
Probability of paternity:
99.99%.
But the forensic technician noticed something else.
The earlier report Vanessa had given Eric was not completely fabricated.
It contained a real sample.
Just not Lily’s.
Harper called me.
“The DNA on Vanessa’s report belongs to someone biologically related to Eric.”
“Who?”
“We don’t know yet.”
Then Mason’s grandmother called.
Mason had remembered something.
A name Vanessa said during a phone call.
“Who?”
“Lucas.”
I froze.
Vanessa had no child named Lucas.
Eric went silent when he heard it.
Then he whispered:
“I do.”
“What?”
“I had a son before I met Mason’s mother.”
My chest tightened.
“How old?”
Eric looked terrified.
May you like
“Eight.”
The same age as Mason.
