A Lie Unraveled by Constance Masters Read Free Book Online

would come but that time wasn’t now. It was all so confusing. One minute he wanted to hug this little girl tight and tell her that he was her daddy and the next we wanted to tell her to watch her tongue. More than anything, he wanted to hear the truth. There were other, much slower routes, but he was sure of one thing, that it wouldn’t be necessary to wait that long. He didn’t want to waste time and money or clinical tests. If Destiny didn’t want to tell him the truth and the whole truth as soon as Sophia was asleep, then she would be telling it anyway while nursing a very sore rear. “Did anyone ever tell you that ice cream was a reward for good behavior?” Justin found himself asking. He couldn’t help himself, it just slipped out.
    “No,” Sophia said sassily.
    “Stay out of it,” Destiny blurted at the same time. “This is not your affair.”
    “It doesn’t seem to be anyone’s affair,” he said. “He tapped his watch.”
    “Okay, okay, we’ll all have strawberry ice-cream,” she said. “Seems to me some people need sweetening up.”
    “She means you,” Sophia said.
    “Oh? What makes you think that?”
    “Because I’m already sweet and you’re a bit of a sour puss.”
    * * *
    Destiny crept down the stairs for the third time in an hour. “She’s finally asleep,” she said.
    “Are you sure she won’t wake up?” he asked.
    “Yes, I’m positive she won’t wake up. She isn’t easy to get to sleep but, once she’s nodded off, she’s out for the count. I won’t hear from her until probably eight-thirty tomorrow morning.”
    “Great, sit and talk to me,” Justin said. “I just have to know.”
    Destiny couldn’t look him in the eye so she got up and wiped the island counter and moved items around that didn’t need to be moved. She didn’t want to risk putting herself in it, if he, in fact, was referring to something else and not Sophia’s parentage. “About the homeschooling?” It was worth a try wasn’t it?
    Justin was behind her in a second. He snatched a wooden spoon from the crock holder, grabbed her hand and towed her back to the sofa. “Let’s call this the talking stick,” he said. “Now start talking or I’m sure you can guess what happens next.”
    Destiny just didn’t know where to start or what to say. “I don’t know what you want from me,” she said, “and I don’t know what you mean by what happens next—” her eyes drifted back to the wooden spoon in his hand and it suddenly dawned on her what he meant to do with his talking stick. “ No , there’s no way you’re going to smack me with that thing.”
    “We’ll see.” He rubbed the spoon up down the side of her leg. “Look at me,” he said. “I want to know if I am Sophia’s father. I can find out anyway, it will just be a matter of a simple court ordered test, but why put us all through all that when you know the answer and can just open up and tell the truth. I’m not putting up with this for much longer, Destiny, I want answers. I deserve answers.”
    Tears welled up in the young mother’s eyes. For years, she had dreamed of this very moment. Maybe she hadn’t dreamed of this very moment. In her dreams, Justin had been more the knight in shining armor than pissed off principal with wooden spoon. “I don’t know what to tell you,” she almost whispered. Before she could actually form a proper answer, she found herself tugged across Justin’s hard knees. “Stop, I’ll tell you,” she said. Too little too late apparently because the thick wooden utensil landed on her bottom with a hard thwack and not just once. Thud after miserable thud of the hard wooden spoon came down across her now stinging rear. It was awful; it stung on the outside but left a dull thudding pain deeper down. “How can I tell you if you’re spanking me?” she hissed. Just as quickly, she was once again upright. She sat there on his knee like a naughty two-year-old, her face flaming with embarrassment. How