“What?”
“That she was interested in you. She always seemed so focused on her own social circle.”
“Hope, after we broke up… how did you find out about the baby?”
“A month later. I didn’t believe it at first. I took three tests.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
Hope smiled sadly. “Mike, you hated me. And two weeks later, I saw the pictures of you and Stephanie at that gala. You’d moved on.”
“We weren’t official then, but we were seeing each other.”
“To me, it was a clear sign. I was the past. You had a new life.”
“And since then?”
“I worked. I did my best for Daisy. I never told her anything bad about you.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That her dad was a good man, but we couldn’t be together. That maybe one day she’d meet him.”
Mike looked at Daisy, who was playing with some dolls in the corner.
“Did she ask about me?”
“All the time. Especially when the other kids talked about their dads.”
“And what did you say?”
“That her dad loved her, but he lived far away. And that she had his eyes.”
At that moment, Dr. Harrison arrived with his medical kit.
“Mark,” Mike introduced him, “this is Hope and Daisy. Mark is a doctor and a friend.”
“Nice to meet you,” Mark said. “Mike asked me to collect some samples for a paternity test.”
“Of course,” Hope agreed.
“Daisy, the doctor needs to take a little swab from your cheek. It doesn’t hurt at all,” Mike explained.
“Is this to see if you’re really my dad?” the girl asked.
“Yes.”
“And if you aren’t?”
Mike knelt beside her. “If I’m not, I’m still going to be your friend and help you and your mom.”
“And if you are?”
“If I am, you’ll be the most important person in my life.”
Daisy thought for a second. “Okay, do the test.”
The procedure took only a few minutes. Dr. Harrison took samples from both Mike and Daisy, promising results in forty-eight hours.
“Mike,” Hope said after the doctor left, “there’s something else.”
“What?”
“I didn’t ask you for money for my treatment. I’m not asking now. I just wanted you to know about Daisy.”
“About the treatment?”
“The doctors say the odds are slim, even with the best care.”
“But there is a chance?”
“A small one.”
“Then we’re taking it. Hope, I’m getting the best oncologist in the state to look at your charts.”
“Mike, that costs a fortune.”
“I have a fortune. And if Daisy is my daughter, her mother is going to get the best care money can buy.”
Hope began to cry—quiet, grateful tears.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
In that moment, Mike knew he had been living a lie for eight years. Someone had gone to great lengths to destroy his happiness. The only question left was how far they were willing to go now.
“The result is negative. Paternity is less than one percent.”
Dr. Harrison’s words hit Mike like a physical blow. He sat in the doctor’s office, staring at the lab report, unable to process it.
“Are you sure? Did you double-check?”
“Twice, Mike. I’m sorry, but Daisy isn’t your daughter.”
“But she looks just like me!”
“Sometimes genetics can play tricks. Coincidences happen. But DNA doesn’t lie.”
Mike took the report and walked out of the clinic in a daze. All the way to Hope’s apartment, he rehearsed how to tell them. The girl was already calling him “Mike” with a hopeful lilt. And he… he had already started feeling like a father.
Daisy opened the door with a radiant smile.
“Mr. Sterling! Mom! He’s here with the results!”
Hope appeared in the hallway. She looked frail, but her eyes were full of expectation.
“Well?”
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