Lydia scoffed, but the confidence in her voice was gone.
The lawyer didn’t waste time. “What we’re looking at here includes defamation, falsified medical documentation, and possible financial misconduct.”
“Financial misconduct?” Daniel’s father repeated slowly.
The truth unraveled fast after that.
Money had been moved—quietly, repeatedly—into an account Lydia controlled. Tens of thousands. The fake paternity test wasn’t about me.
It was about control of the family trust.
Lydia finally snapped. “Everything changed when she came into this family!” she shouted, pointing at me. “You all started trusting her more than me!”
I met her gaze, steady and cold. “You told my daughter her father wasn’t her father.”
That was the line she couldn’t walk back.
Soft footsteps echoed from the hallway.
Mia stood there, clutching her tablet, eyes wet.
“Mom?” she whispered. “Is Daddy my dad?”
Everything inside me cracked.
Daniel reached her first, kneeling and pulling her into his arms.
“Yes,” he said firmly. “I am. I always will be. Nothing anyone says changes that.”
She buried her face against him. “Then why did Aunt Lydia say that?”