Chapter 1 - The Paper Beside the Broken Cabinet
Theo Bennett was only fifteen months old when Lorraine decided he did not belong in the house.
The boy stood unsteadily near the top of the grand carpeted staircase, dressed in his sage-green knitted onesie and white socks.
Lorraine stood above him.
His grandmother.
Garrett’s mother.
The woman who had smiled beside Theo in family photographs while privately refusing to call herself his grandmother.
Theo looked up at her.
Lorraine’s face hardened.
Then she kicked him.
Once.
Hard.
Theo lost his balance and tumbled down the carpeted steps.
His small body rolled until he reached the bottom.
By the time he stopped, he was screaming.
A faint bruise was already forming on his forehead, but he remained conscious and otherwise physically uninjured.
Lorraine stared down at him.
“A BASTARD LIKE YOU DOESN’T BELONG HERE.”
The front door opened.
Garrett stepped inside.
Then froze.
His son was crying at the foot of the staircase.
“THEO!”
He ran across the foyer.
Dropped beside him.
Then carefully lifted Theo and pulled the child tight against his chest.
Theo immediately buried his wet face against his father.
Garrett checked his head, arms, and legs as quickly as he could.
Then he looked up.
Lorraine was walking down the staircase.
Slowly.
Without remorse.
“That bastard deserved it.”
Garrett stopped moving.
Something in his face became cold.
He held Theo securely against his chest.
Then stepped toward his mother.
One powerful kick struck Lorraine’s body.
WHACK.
She flew backward into the wooden display cabinet.
CRASH.
The cabinet collapsed.
The decorative vase shattered.
Magazines and ornaments scattered across the foyer.
Lorraine fell beside the wreckage.
Conscious.
Stunned.
Garrett did not strike her again.
Theo remained safely in his arms.
Then Garrett reached into his pocket with his free hand.
Pulled out a folded piece of paper.
And looked down at his mother.
“LET’S SEE WHOSE NAME IS WRITTEN ON THIS PAPER.”
For the first time, Lorraine’s expression changed.
Garrett threw the folded page onto the floor beside her.
It landed among broken porcelain and magazines.
Lorraine stared at it.
Her face went pale.
Garrett tightened his arm around Theo.
And in that instant, he understood something important.
His mother wasn’t afraid because the paper might prove Theo belonged to the Bennett family.
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She was afraid because it might prove Lorraine had spent more than a year lying about why she said he didn’t.
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