Chapter 2 - The Father Who Chose HerNobody moved.
Tim still held the microphone.
Ivy stood beside me with tears on her cheeks.
Tim looked toward her first.
That mattered.
Then he addressed the room.
“When I was twenty-six, doctors told me I could never biologically father a child.”
Eleanor went pale.
“Tim…”
He ignored her.
“Kate and I spent years trying to build our family. Eventually we chose IVF using donor sperm.”
The room became completely silent.
“I attended every appointment.”
His voice started shaking.
“I gave Kate injections when she was too frightened to do them herself.”
I remembered those nights.
Sitting on the bathroom counter.
Tim counting.
Three.
Two.
One.
“I held her hand after our first embryo transfer failed.”
He looked at me.
“We cried together.”
My eyes filled.
“And when Ivy’s heartbeat appeared on that screen, I was there.”
He pointed toward his chest.
“I was her father then.”
Then toward Ivy.
“I was her father when she was born.”
Eleanor whispered:
“You should have told me.”
Tim turned.
“No.”
She flinched.
“We kept it private because it belongs to our daughter.”
“But I’m her grandmother.”
“You were.”
The word landed hard.
Eleanor stared.
Tim walked toward Ivy.
He crouched.
“Come here, Lucky Star.”
She ran into him.
He held her.
Then looked over her head toward his mother.
“You stole a hair from a child.”
Eleanor tried to speak.
“You secretly tested her DNA.”
“Because I thought Kate—”
“You thought my wife cheated.”
“Yes!”
Eleanor seemed relieved to finally say it.
“I was trying to protect you!”
Tim stood slowly with Ivy in his arms.
“By feeding my daughter beside dirty laundry?”
Eleanor looked uncomfortable.
“That was symbolic.”
I almost laughed from disbelief.
“You humiliated a six-year-old as symbolism?”
Eleanor turned toward me.
“This happened because you kept secrets.”
“No,” Tim answered.
“This happened because you believed you had the right to investigate my marriage.”
Eleanor’s eyes filled.
“You don’t understand what I saw.”
“What?”
“Your daughter looks nothing like you!”
Ivy buried her face against Tim.
His expression changed instantly.
“Stop.”
“But—”
“She is listening.”
Eleanor finally noticed.
Too late.
The damage had already happened.
Tim handed the microphone to a stunned waiter.
“We’re leaving.”
His cousin David approached.
“Tim…”
“Not tonight.”
We headed toward the front doors.
Eleanor followed.
“Wait.”
Tim did not.
“Tim!”
Outside, rain had begun.
Eleanor grabbed his sleeve.
“You cannot erase sixty years of family over one mistake!”
He turned.
“One mistake?”
“I misunderstood.”
“You arranged a separate meal for my child.”
“I was angry!”
“At whom?”
Eleanor’s mouth opened.
“At Kate.”
Tim nodded.
“So you punished Ivy.”
That silenced her.
Eleanor began crying.
“I thought she had betrayed you.”
“You wanted that to be true.”
“What?”
His voice became quieter.
“You have hated Kate since the first day I brought her home.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“You were looking for proof that she didn’t belong.”
Eleanor stared.
“And when you thought you found it, you didn’t call me privately.”
Tim gestured toward the mansion.
“You invited two hundred people and turned my daughter into evidence.”
Ivy lifted her head.
“Daddy?”
Tim immediately softened.
“Yes?”
“Am I still your little girl?”
Everything stopped.
Eleanor covered her mouth.
Tim placed Ivy down and knelt on the wet stone driveway.
“Sweetheart.”
She looked frightened.
“My hair doesn’t match yours.”
He started crying.
I did too.
Tim held both her hands.
“You were our dream before you were even born.”
Ivy sniffled.
“You chose me?”
“Every day.”
“Even now?”
“Especially now.”
She wrapped her arms around him.
“I love you, Daddy.”
Tim closed his eyes.
“I love you more.”
Eleanor stood several feet away watching.
Something about her expression changed.
For perhaps the first time, she understood that whatever she believed she had exposed had never been Tim’s secret.
It was hers.
Her obsession with blood.
Her distrust.
Her cruelty.
But she had one more surprise waiting.
Because while Tim spoke to Ivy, Eleanor’s younger sister Margaret emerged from the house.
She held Eleanor’s DNA results.
And she looked furious.
“Eleanor.”
My mother-in-law turned.
May you like
Margaret raised the papers.
“You tested the wrong person.”
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