I had been a child. I had accepted his explanation because I had no reason not to.
“Why are you telling me this now?” I asked.
My mother looked at Daniel.
“Because he didn’t come back into our lives by accident.”
I turned toward my fiancé.
He said nothing.
“Daniel, look at me.”
Slowly, he raised his eyes.
“Did you start dating me because of my father?”
His silence was answer enough.
I stepped backward.
“No. Tell me that’s not true.”
“When I first met you, I didn’t know who you were,” he said. “You introduced yourself as Claire Bennett. You never mentioned your father’s name.”
“And when you found out?”
He swallowed.
“I wanted to end things.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because I had already fallen in love with you.”
I shook my head.
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
He rubbed his face with both hands.
“When I discovered that you were Victor Bennett’s daughter, I remembered everything. My father’s death. The lies. The records that disappeared. I thought that getting close to you might finally give me access to the truth.”
