Chapter 3: The Plan for Lily
Daniel pushed back his chair so hard it struck the wall.
“Chloe, leave.”
“No.” She tightened one arm around her sleeping baby.
“You said Jennifer knew.”
“Knew what?” I asked.
Chloe looked from Daniel to me.
Her confidence disappeared.
“That you were separating.
That Lily would live with him after you went away for treatment.”
My mother stood with Lily against her shoulder.
“Treatment for what?”
Daniel stepped between us.
“She misunderstood a private conversation.”
“I did not misunderstand,” Chloe said.
“You told me Jennifer was unstable after the birth.
You said the doctors agreed.”
“No doctor has said that,” I replied.
Daniel pointed at me.
“You’ve barely slept in three months.
You forget things.
You cry without warning.”
“I had a baby, Daniel.
I did not lose the ability to recognize a lie.”
His mother, Evelyn, reached for the table.
“What does Chloe mean about Lily living with you?”
Chloe pulled a white envelope from her diaper bag.
“He gave me these yesterday.
He wanted me to sign a statement saying Jennifer left Lily alone.”
My mother moved closer to me.
“Did she?”
“No,” Chloe said.
“I’ve never even been inside their house.”
Daniel lunged for the envelope, but his father, Robert, caught his wrist.
“Sit down,” Robert said.
“Let go of me.”
“Not until you answer your wife.”
Daniel jerked free.
“This is ridiculous.
Chloe is emotional, Jennifer is exhausted, and all of you are turning a misunderstanding into a spectacle.”
“You invited the spectacle,” I said.
“You put it in a ballroom.”
Chloe handed me the envelope.
Inside was a draft petition requesting emergency custody of Lily and a letter recommending that I undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
My name appeared at the bottom of another page.
I stared at the signature.
“That isn’t mine.”
Daniel gave a short laugh.
“You sign things without reading them all the time.”
“I have never signed away custody of my daughter.”
“It’s not a custody surrender,” he said.
“It’s temporary authorization so someone responsible can care for her.”
My knees weakened.
My mother placed her free hand against my back.
“You mean someone obedient,” I said.
Daniel lowered his voice.
“You can end this now.
Pay the bill, take Lily home, and we’ll discuss it privately.”
“You still think this is about the bill?”
“It will be about your fitness as a mother if you keep going.”
Robert moved between us.
“Do not threaten her.”
Daniel’s phone vibrated again.
This time it was not a message from Chloe.
A banking alert filled the screen.
I read the first line before Daniel turned it over.
“Your transfer of sixty-two thousand dollars is pending approval.”
Evelyn gripped the back of her chair.
“Sixty-two thousand?”
I opened my banking app.
Our savings account showed almost nothing, but a home-equity account I had never seen appeared beneath it.
My thumb stopped over the screen.
“Daniel, why is there a loan against our house?”
“It’s an investment.”
“In whose name?”
He said nothing.
Chloe shifted her baby and looked down at the papers still in my hand.
“There’s another page,” she whispered.
I pulled it free.
It authorized the bank to send the entire amount to D.
Mercer Holdings.
My signature had been copied onto the bottom, beside the seal of a notary from Daniel’s firm.
Then my phone rang.
It was Grace, my divorce attorney.
“Jennifer,” she said, “do not let Daniel leave that room.
May you like
The bank just called me.
Someone tried to move sixty-two thousand dollars using your forged signature.”
