A Lie Unraveled Read Online Free PDF

notes. “Pardon me?”
    “No dad. Sophia doesn’t have a dad who’s in the picture. At least in the year that I had her in my class, I never met him and she didn’t mention him ever. Even when they had talked about parent careers in class.”
    “There is no dad? Are you really, really sure about that?” Justin felt sick and he could feel the color drain from his face.
    “I’ve probably said enough,” Candace said, realizing there was a slight change in the conversation. “I don’t want to gossip.”
    Justin took a breath and tried to calm himself. He had scared this young woman. He wanted her to feel comfortable to talk to him. “If you tell me what you have heard in this situation, it isn’t gossip, please.” Justin needed to hear this and he needed to hear it right now.
    Candace nodded. “There is talk. You know that Destiny grew up in this town?”
    “Yes,” he said. Apparently Candice didn’t know that he and Destiny used to date; if it was common knowledge, she wasn’t letting on. He was past caring at this point what anyone found out about him. He had a terrible gut feeling about this and he needed to know sooner rather than later exactly what might have happened with Destiny.
    “No-one, has ever met the dad, not even once. I mean, no matter what work you did, you would have to get a vacation, a few days off or something in a year wouldn’t you?”
    “Yes, I guess you would. So you really don’t think there’s a father?”
    “Obviously there’s a father, just not one who’s in the picture. The general consensus is that Destiny got pregnant in the summer after high school,” she said. “Destiny hadn’t been back here for years and then when her parents died and she inherited the house and quite a bit of money I’m told, then she moved back, with Sophia.”
    Justin’s ears started to ring and he felt like he was having trouble breathing.
    “Are you okay?” Candice asked, her face etched with worry.
    “I’m fine,” he said. “Dry throat, I just need a mint.” He clicked open the tin and offered her one before popping one in his own mouth. Justin needed the distraction, he wasn’t fine, he was about to have a heart attack. No, he wasn’t about to have a heart attack— maybe a stroke? He could not feel anything but the pounding in his head. Was there really a chance that Sophia was his child? Why would Destiny lie to him like that? It didn’t make sense.
    “Thank you, Candace, you’ve been a great help,” Justin managed to get out. “I think I can take it from here.” He had no idea where he was going to take this. There was a possibility that he’d had another daughter for the last nine years. Nine years? What had Destiny been thinking to keep this from him? If, in fact, she had kept this from him. Things weren’t always what they seemed. Maybe she was hiding out from the father or too embarrassed to say that she had been left on her own to raise a child. If nothing else though, they had once been in a relationship. She should trust him enough with the truth. The only reason he could think of that she wouldn’t trust him was if Sophia was in fact his child. It was the only scenario that made sense in a nonsensical way. Whichever way he looked at this Destiny was hiding something big. He needed to get to the bottom of this and the only way to do that was to get back over to her house and demand some answers. If Destiny had kept his child from him, her worry won’t be trouble from the state about the homeschooling; homeschooling would be totally out. There would be trouble coming to a certain young mom and it would come from him in the way of a spanking to end all spankings.
    * * *
    “Hi, Mom,” Justin said when his mother answered the phone.
    “What’s wrong?” she asked, worry cracking in her voice.
    “Why do ask if there’s something wrong?” Justin asked. His mother was like a witch, a good witch or a psychic. She had a sixth sense when it came to any problems he