Betrayal Behind the Wheel novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: Whose Daughter

I walked down the lawn and knelt on the wet grass in front of my daughter.

Every neighbor on the street was watching.

I did not care.

"Hey, Milly."

"Daddy, is it true?"

Her lip was shaking.

I had promised myself I would never lie to her.

I could not make that promise and keep it unbroken now, so I chose the smallest true thing.

"Colby helped make you," I said. "That part is true."

She looked at the man by the car.

"But he didn't brush your hair every morning," I said.

"He didn't learn your pancakes, or sit through rehearsal with a tin dinosaur."

"That was you."

"That was me."

"Who stayed up when I had the fever?"

"I did."

"Who knows my dinosaur's name?"

"Linda," I said. "She has a hat."

Her face crumpled.

I opened my arms and she walked into them.

I held her small, shaking body against my chest.

"Are you still my daddy?" she asked into my collar.

"As long as you want me."

"I want you."

"Then I am."

"Mommy is being mean."

"Mommy is very upset."

"She yelled."

"I know."

Behind me, Colby took a step forward.

"Milly," he said, soft and awkward. "Sweetheart, I-"

"No!"

She jerked her head out of my shoulder and screamed it at him.

"You're Uncle Colby. You're not my daddy. You don't know how to make pancakes!"

Colby stopped.

It was the first time in my life I had seen my brother lost for words.

"Milly, honey," Marissa said, a little shrill.

"Go away!"

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