Not because it was funny. Because the words were impossible.
“She’s ten.”
“I understand.”
“She still sleeps with a stuffed rabbit.”
“A test can occasionally be wrong. We’re repeating it with bloodwork.”
Sophie’s face had gone white.
“Am I having a baby?”
I pulled her against me.
“No. There’s been a mistake.”
Hospital policy required them to contact both a social worker and Sophie’s other legal guardian. Daniel was not allowed back into the room.
Eric arrived thirty minutes later.
He came through the doors so quickly that a security officer followed him down the hall. Daniel stood when he saw him.
“What happened?” Eric demanded.
Daniel raised both hands. “Let the doctor explain.”
Eric looked through the window and saw Sophie crying against my shoulder. Then he noticed the social worker sitting beside her bed.
His expression changed.
“No.”
“Eric—”
“You live in the same house as her.”
Daniel stepped backward as if he had been struck.
“I have never hurt Sophie.”
Eric pointed directly at him.
“Arrest him.”
A nurse pulled the curtain, but Sophie had already heard.
She slid out of my arms and ran toward the door.
“Dad, stop!”
Eric tried to enter. The security officer blocked him while the social worker guided Sophie back.
Daniel stood motionless in the hallway.
Sophie pressed both palms against the glass.
“He didn’t do anything!”
Dr. Ortiz returned carrying a printed laboratory report. She shut the door behind her.
I searched her face for reassurance.
“The urine test was wrong, wasn’t it?”
She didn’t answer immediately.
“We repeated the test using Sophie’s blood.”
My stomach tightened.
“And?”
“The result is positive.”
Sophie began shaking her head.
“But I’ve never even kissed anyone.”
“I believe you,” Dr. Ortiz said.
Outside the room, Eric was still shouting at Daniel. Every person in the hallway had turned to watch the man they already believed had harmed my child.
Dr. Ortiz lowered her voice.
“The laboratory ran the sample twice. Sophie has a significant amount of pregnancy hormone in her blood.”
I gripped the side of the bed.
“What happens now?”
“We need an ultrasound immediately.”
“To find the baby?”
Dr. Ortiz looked at Sophie, then back at me.
“To determine whether there is a baby at all.”
Chapter Two
The Man Everyone Blamed
The hospital separated all of us.
Sophie remained with me. Daniel was taken to a consultation room at the opposite end of the pediatric wing. Eric refused to leave the hallway until a security officer warned that he would be removed.
A social worker named Marissa Cole entered Sophie’s room carrying no notebook.
She sat beside the bed and spoke gently.
“I’m going to ask Sophie some questions alone.”
Sophie tightened her arms around her stuffed rabbit.
“I want my mom.”
“I’ll be right outside,” I promised.
I hated myself for saying it. Everyone Sophie trusted had already been pushed behind a different door.
Eric was waiting when I stepped into the hallway.
“You let that man live with our daughter.”
