They Faked a DNA Test, So I Made Them Test Everyone novel · Chapter 3 of 16

Chapter 3: The Bad Word

Douglas tries to take Finley, the clip spreads, Kate saves her job in person, and then the preschool calls: Patricia has come to pick Finley up.

I pulled back from her kiss and said it loud enough for the hallway.

"Did you just threaten to take my son?"

A dozen heads turned.

Patricia's smile didn't move.

"I said you'll be seeing a lot of him. Goodnight, sweetheart."

She walked back into her party.

I carried Finley down the stairs and out onto the pier.

The lake was black and the air smelled like diesel and fried clams.

He fell asleep before we reached the car.

At home, I put him in his bed in his party clothes and sat on the floor beside him.

My phone buzzed nonstop on the carpet.

Someone had clipped the livestream before the police took it.

It was on every local page by midnight.

Most of the clip was the fake report and Finley's frightened face.

Some of it was me, calm, pulling the phone out of the vase.

The comments were split.

"She admitted it, what else do you need?"

"Why was there a hidden camera at a birthday party?"

"That kid looks terrified, delete this."

At one in the morning, the front door opened.

Douglas came in without turning on the lights.

He went straight down the hall to Finley's room.

I was already standing in the doorway.

"Move," he said.

"No."

"I'm taking him to my mother's. You're not stable enough to have him tonight."

"You called him a bastard in front of sixty people."

"Because he might be one."

"You knew the report was fake."

He didn't deny it.

He just looked past me at the bed.

"Move, Kate."

I held up my phone.

The recorder had been running since the party.

"Say it again," I said. "Say you're taking him because I'm unstable. The officers liked the last part."

He stared at the red dot on the screen.

Behind me, Finley sat up in bed.

"Daddy?"

Douglas's face changed.

For a second I thought he'd go to him.

He didn't.

"Go back to sleep," he said, and left.

The front door slammed.

Finley held Captain against his chest.

"Mommy, why did Daddy call me that word?"

"What word, baby?"

"The bad one. Is it because I'm not his?"

I got into his bed with my shoes still on.

"You are his," I said. "And you are mine. And Daddy said something wrong, and he's going to have to say sorry in front of everybody."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

He fell asleep holding my finger.

I didn't sleep.

At eight the next morning, my boss called.

In my last life, this was the call where Dana Whitlock put me on leave.

The Harborline launch went to someone else.

The company's comment section filled with my face.

This time I didn't answer.

I dropped Finley at Little Harbor Preschool, told his teacher nobody but me was allowed to take him, and drove straight to Coldwater Supply.

Dana was standing in the conference room with the marketing team.

Everybody had the clip up on their laptops.

The room went quiet when I walked in.

"Kate," Dana said. "I tried to call you."

"I know. I wanted to do this in person."

I set a printout on the table.

It was the police incident number, and the officer's name, and the words forged medical document.

"My in-laws faked a paternity test at a party and livestreamed my son," I said. "The police have the phone. A real test is coming. If anyone here wants to comment on my son's face online, they can talk to that officer first."

Nobody said anything.

Ben from marketing closed his laptop.

Then the woman beside him closed hers.

Dana looked at the printout a long time.

"The Boston show is in five weeks," she said.

"Harborline will be ready in four."

"Then you're still leading it."

My knees almost went.

I kept them locked.

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me," Dana said. "Just win."

I walked back to my car in the parking lot and finally let myself shake.

My phone rang before I got the key in.

It was Little Harbor Preschool.

"Mrs. Corbett? This is Ms. Prichard, Finley's teacher."

Her voice was tight.

"Finley's grandmother is here in the lobby. She has a signed letter from his father saying she's picking him up today, and she says you've been hospitalized."

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