Chapter 10 - The Custody Threat
Charles had filed nothing.
That was the surprise.
Instead, he requested a meeting.
Cassidy almost refused.
Declan convinced her.
Charles arrived without lawyers.
He looked at the girls playing in the garden.
For a long time, the powerful man said nothing.
Then Lily noticed him.
“Who's the old man?”
Declan coughed to hide a laugh.
Charles almost smiled.
“I'm your grandfather.”
Lily considered this.
“Daddy's daddy?”
“Yes.”
She looked at Declan.
“You have a daddy?”
Even Cassidy laughed.
Charles's expression softened.
Later, he apologized.
Not elegantly.
Not completely.
But enough.
“I frightened you,” he told Cassidy.
“Yes.”
“I believed I was protecting my family.”
“So did I.”
Charles looked toward the girls.
“Perhaps that is the problem with our family. We protect possessions better than people.”
Declan stared at his father.
It was the first honest thing Cassidy had ever heard Charles Hawthorne say.
The legal threat disappeared.
But another question remained.
DNA testing.
Declan had never asked.
Cassidy finally did.
“Don't you want proof?”
Declan looked toward the girls.
“No.”
“You're certain?”
“I've never been more certain of anything.”
Cassidy’s throat tightened.
Trust was returning.
Slowly.
May you like
Dangerously.
And with it came feelings she had spent five years burying.
