Skip to content The Photograph
Daniel took one step closer.
“Claire, what is that?”
I looked at Lily.
“Sweetheart, where did you get that picture?”
“Aunt Rachel gave it to me.”
Daniel’s eyes widened.
“Rachel?”
His younger brother’s wedding suddenly felt very far away.
Vanessa stepped backward.
“Give me that.”
Lily pulled the photograph against her chest.
“No.”
Her voice was small, but firm.
I knelt beside her.
“It’s okay. Nobody is going to take it from you.”
Daniel looked at me.
“Is that your daughter?”
“Yes.”
His face changed.
“Why didn’t I know?”
I stood.
“Because you weren’t supposed to.”
The question seemed to hit him harder than anything else.
“Claire, what does that mean?”
I took a breath.
Five years earlier, when our marriage had ended, I had been pregnant.
I had discovered it shortly after Daniel told me he wanted a divorce.
He had already moved on emotionally.
He had made it clear that he didn’t want a child tying him to me.
When I told him about the pregnancy, he accused me of trying to keep him in the marriage.
I never forgot those words.
So I made a decision.
I would raise my child without forcing her into a relationship with someone who didn’t want to be her father.
I never asked Daniel for money.
I never demanded visits.
I simply disappeared from his life…