Chapter 3: The Name That Shouldn't Exist
The name was Daniel Voss.
I hadn't spoken it aloud since the week after Lily was born.
Since the restraining order.
Since the night I sat in a police station at two in the morning filling out a report while my wife, Claire, held our newborn daughter in the waiting room and pretended she wasn't afraid.
"Say that again," I said.
"Daniel Voss." Marlene held my gaze.
"He's been in contact with me.
For the past three months."
The photographs in my hand felt heavier.
"You've been talking to him."
"He reached out.
He said he'd changed.
He said—"
"He said." I set the photographs on the desk very carefully, because if I didn't do something deliberate with my hands I wasn't sure what I would do with them.
"You sat across from me at Christmas dinner.
You held Lily on your lap.
And you were talking to Daniel Voss."
Marlene's chin lifted.
"I was trying to assess the situation before I alarmed anyone."
"Alarmed anyone." I turned to Lily.
"Sweetheart.
Can you go to your room for a few minutes?"
Lily looked at me, then at her grandmother.
She didn't move immediately.
Then she stood, walked to the door, and paused.
"Grandma showed him a picture," she said quietly.
"On her phone.
Of our house."
She left.
The door clicked shut behind her.
I turned back to Marlene.
"She showed him a picture on her phone," I said.
"Of our house."
Marlene's expression didn't break, but something behind it shifted.
"That was a mistake.
I admitted that to myself.
But Daniel is not the person you think he is anymore.
He has a therapist.
He has a sponsor.
He told me things about his past that explained—"
"He had a restraining order against him, Marlene.
For stalking Claire before she d*ed.
For following Lily's stroller in the park.
For leaving notes on our car." I picked up one of the photographs.
"And you gave him our address."
"I didn't give him your address."
"You showed him a picture of our house."
She said nothing.
"Does he know what school Lily goes to?"
"Of course not."
"Does he know what she looks like now?"
Marlene's eyes moved to the photographs on the desk.
My stomach dropped.
"Those pictures," I said.
"Who were they for?"
"I was going to send them to him.
As proof that she was healthy and well cared for.
He asked about her.
He's her—"
"Don't." My voice came out low and flat.
"Don't say that word."
"He is biologically—"
"Don't."
Marlene pressed her lips together.
Then: "You can't keep her from her history forever."
"Her history." I looked at her.
"Her history is that her mother spent the last year of her life afraid of that man.
Her history is that I adopted Lily legally and completely the year Claire passed.
Her history is that Daniel Voss has no legal claim, no parental rights, and a court record that would make your hair stand up." I picked up the photographs and held them out.
"And her history is that her grandmother was secretly documenting her movements to send to him."
Marlene took the photographs.
Her hand was steady.
That steadiness frightened me more than anything else she had said.
"I want you to leave," I said.
"Right now.
Tonight."
"You're making a mistake."
"I want you to leave."
She picked up her purse.
She walked to the door.
Then she stopped, her back to me.
"He told me he knows where the school is," she said.
"He told me that three weeks ago.
I didn't believe him.
But after today—" She paused.
"I think you should."
She walked out.
I stood in the study for a long moment.
Then I went to Lily's room.
She was sitting on her bed with a book open in her lap, not reading it.
"Dad," she said.
"Is the bad man coming back?"
I sat down beside her.
"What do you know about the bad man?"
She turned a page she hadn't read.
May you like
"Grandma said he just wanted to see me.
But she also said I shouldn't tell you she said that."
