Page 40 of The Princess Home for Christmas

Officer Hendricks interrupted. “He said Theresa just told him.”

Thomas nodded again, wondering if that could be true. She’d been less than truthful with him before. “If paternity can be proven, what is your plan, Frugalo? The children need a temporary reliable place of residence, a good home, while their mother receives the treatment she needs.”

“I’d like to claim custody and become their father. I want them in my life.” His eye twitched. And Thomas knew the man was lying. But why? Why lie about such a thing?

“She told me you were dating around the time Joe would have been conceived.”

Donald sat back in his chair as if things had already been decided in his favor. He pulled some paperwork out of his file folder. “These papers should do the trick as far as proof.” Then he pulled another set of papers out of the other folder. “And this is the paperwork detailing our suit against you for unlawful seizure of a minor and mistreatment of the same.”

“What?” Thomas wanted to pound him, but Officer Hendricks’ warning stare made him keep his cool. “I think.” He pushed away from the desk and stood. “I need to have a good conversation with my attorney.”

“In the meantime, I’ll be over to pick up the children.”

He held up his hand. “Oh no. I have written permission from their mother to care for them while she’s away. A blood DNA test is the only thing I would consider as undeniable proof and even then, blood relation does not prove good parenting.”

Donald narrowed his eyes. “We’ll be in touch then.”

“I’m sure you will.” He tipped his head at Officer Hendricks and then walked out the door. He twisted his head around, cracking his neck and rotating his shoulders. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. A part of him would welcome Donald, wished to hand the kids off to him. Theresa said he was a better parent than she was. But Thomas couldn’t shake the creepy feeling he had around the guy. And what was this lawsuit? He decided to do some research. Let Donald sweat it out a little bit too, test his gumption.

Lucan called. “Hello.”

“We got some leads. I’ll be back in touch.”

“Good leads?”

“Either really great leads or the opposite.”

“Hmm. Okay, thanks for checking this out for me.”

He hung up.

And Thomas headed for home, not sure his life could get any more complicated.

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