“Mr. Vogel, you currently owe $43,000 in child support for the defendant’s son, who you say is not yours, and you claim to know who his father is.”

“That’s right.”

“Once today’s results prove that you are not his biological father, you say you will return to your home state to get this enormous debt erased?”

“Yes, Ms. Vogel.”

“You say the plaintiff is motivated by money and have always believed he is your son William’s father. After thirty years, you are finally ready to prove the truth today. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“So, Mr. Vogel, who do you believe his father is?”

“My brother David. She had sex with my brother. In my car. In a parking lot in Janesville, Wisconsin.”

“Okay, wait a minute. Let me take me back.” The judge held up a hand, frowning. “I’m sorry, Ms. Vogel, but—there was no sex in the car. It was under a bridge. My son is a bridge baby. I don’t know where he got that.”

“But you’re admitting that you were intimate with his brother?”

“Yes, ma’am. Just not in the car. Under a bridge.”

“Let’s get it right.” The judge sighed. “So what was the nature of your relationship with Mr. Vogel?”

“It was real rocky. Okay? Real rocky.”

“But you were married?”

“Yes, I was. To Mr. Vogel.”

“So William was born during your marriage?”

“Yes, your honor.”

“So you would be presumed to be the father.”

“Yes, your honor.”

“So during the time in which Ms. Vogel is pregnant, do you believe William is your child? During that time, do you know about this sex with your brother?”

“I had a thought that it possibly was somebody in my family, and I figured it was probably my brother. You start to think, and things are going wrong in the relationship, and my brother is doing certain things, and it’s like—wait a minute, you two must be getting together or something. And that’s when everything started clicking in my head. And I started putting dates together.”

“He was born on November 17th. If she had divorced me already and I had went down to Kentucky to talk to her for a little while—I stayed with her for like three or four days—and she told me the story of the car on February 19th, I guess just to get me mad and get me going. And if she had sex with my brother after three years, we got married—”

“Oh, so then you married his brother?”

“Yeah. Three years after I divorced him.”

“How do you get to a point where you’re going to sleep with your husband’s brother?”

“Well, the bridge thingy—I mean, he treated me better. He was good to me. And he just was so smooth that he just talked me right out of my—literally.”

“Can I get a jack for a moment?”

“You’d have to actually get a better understanding of his brother David. This man—he’s got a sly tongue. He’s got a snake’s tongue. He could pretty much talk anybody into generally anything. So I wouldn’t doubt what my mother was saying.”

“What are you thinking?”

“I haven’t had a secure thought in years. About two years ago, my mom pretty much came to me and she told me there’s a possibility that David could be my father. And what she basically told me was that she had had sex with him under a bridge. Now that’s my understanding of it. It hasn’t changed over the last two years.”

“Okay. Who did you grow up believing was your biological father?”

“Well, I had grown to the age of five with my understanding that David was my father. And then all of a sudden, my mother had kind of come to me when I was five and gave me a better understanding that my uncle Daniel might have been my father. And then she basically told me that he was my father. So I had had a lot of head trips at that point in time. Didn’t really understand. I’m head-tripping right now.”

“But Mr. Vogel—Daniel here is the one paying child support for you.”

“Yeah. See, it’s all about the money anyway.”

“It’s not about the money. It’s about the children.”

“I have this right here, which is proof that forty-three thousand dollars—”

“Let me see that evidence, please.”

“This is proof of the amount of support you’ve been paying. I’ve been paying in two states since 1990. They’re taking my federal tax down in Kentucky. The state of Wisconsin’s taking my state tax. I have no money. My three children my wife raised with me in the house, because I had no money—I couldn’t give them Christmas presents. I couldn’t give birthday presents. I couldn’t do nothing for my own children. And these are my children. These are pronounced to not be my children.”

“Owed on children you don’t know are really your biological children, right?”

“William, you don’t know. And truthfully, William grew up, he didn’t even think at first you were his biological father. Right? But you were paying support even all that time.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“The legal lesson in this is that the court is going to consider the best interest of the child. Right? If the child was born during the marriage, you’re presumed to be the father.”

“Yes, I know you’re right. And most states give a window of time to refute that, to bring proof.”

“Yeah.”

“And I was just about to say, and some courts don’t choose to acknowledge or move forward if they believe it’s in the best interest of the child.”

“I have—and now I have a young man standing in my courtroom, quite frankly, that says he hasn’t had a secure thought in years. Because he doesn’t have a firm foundation. Because he doesn’t know who his father is. It’s like changing by the decade. One decade he has one father. The next decade, that father is his uncle, and then the uncle is the father. The next decade, then that uncle becomes his father and the father becomes an uncle. This is too much.”

The judge shuffled papers, shaking her head. “So once William got word that potentially Mr. Vogel—Daniel—could be your biological father, how did the dynamic change then?”

“Well, at that point in time, I wanted to get to know my father. I wanted to get to know the man standing here before us. I actually took a little bit of time and actually had the opportunity to go and spend a little bit of time with him. He’s a wonderful man. I didn’t really get much time beyond that, off and on throughout the years. I’ve had times here and there just kind of juggled between my mother and my supposed biological. I never got to see much, and he got to see me once in a while—it wasn’t very often. Majority of time living with David, I had actually been moved around from state to state. We really didn’t stay in one place for a very long period of time. So my understanding of it was David was my father because he was the one raising me, but Daniel was my biological father.”

“So you’re in a situation where your father—”

“And your father could be your uncle.”

“Yes.”

“Sure. Either way, your uncle is—either way, either way, my uncle is my father. Either way. And I come from the state of Kentucky, so that sounds kind of weird. Kind of offbeat.”

“Mr. Vogel, sometimes you just have to laugh to keep from crying, people. Okay? Sometimes you just have to laugh.”

“Have you ever tried to figure out a timeline to piece this together? Because the truth is, if she was still married to you when William was conceived, then that’s why we’re here. Is because potentially you could be his biological father, as well as your brother.”

“And I have beat myself up for many years trying to figure out the difference between this, the timeline, and everything else.”

“Okay, let’s walk through the dates. I’ve done everything. Walk through the dates with me.”

“She told me February 19th of ’84. That was the story back then. February 19th of ’84 was when her and my brother had sexual relations.”

“Brother—did you really have sex with his brother on his birthday, Ms. Vogel?”

“Yes, your honor. I did.”

“Whoa. When was William born?”

“November 17th.”

“So that’s—William born—I don’t know what really made the difference is I was gone, and I came home on the 27th of February when we were set to move down to Kentucky. We moved there on the first of March, and Donna was having her menstrual period—of which she did every time she had—well, what she did when she had my oldest son. The bottom line is you’re saying you were not intimate with her not until about the 7th of March?”

“Until about the 7th of March when we got down to Kentucky.”

“So that’s husband—”

“Nope.”

“And wife time?”

“What was going on around February 19th? You were gone.”

“I was gone, yes.”

“So the affair with the brother started when he was away.”

“Yeah. So that February 19th is the bridge.”

“Your honor, we’ll just put a ‘bridge.’ William, I understand your confusion.”

“Honey, this is a lie. And the main purpose and reason why I’m here is for my children. I’ve got a four-year-old, two three-year-olds, eighteen-month-old. I mean, what am I going to tell them? I mean, I just need to just take care of—well, I still have a warrant out for my arrest in Wisconsin. I could go to jail. I’ve been to jail for contempt of court twice, equaling eight months—which is way over the limit of what I owe right now. Even right there at fifty dollars a day, paying a hundred and all of this for failure to pay child support.”

“All of this—I clearly look like that man. I mean, I’ve got his body structure.”

“So William, you believe you look like David Vogel? The brother?”

“Yes, your honor. I’ve done a lot of research over the years, and I’ve actually come to a point where I have understood a little bit more about genetics than what I really want to kind of delve into. But to my understanding, it doesn’t matter whether it is David or Daniel—I could look like either one of them. I could look like my grandfather. I could look like my aunt. I mean, we see that a lot. I do look a lot like my mom. But I look more like David than anybody.”

“Mr. Vogel, as you stand here in court today, has any of this testimony affected your belief? Because you’ve gone back and forth. Is it just because you’ve just always been confused?”

“Yes, your honor. It is because I just don’t know.”

“Well, that’s why we’re here. That’s okay.”

“It’s all forgiven, Donna. It’s forgiven, my husband. You know that.”

“Now that’s the kind of stuff I’d like to see—under the bridge. That’s what I want to see under the bridge. Thank you for that, Mr. Vogel, because I don’t think we can undervalue the power of just forgiveness. You know, it would have been easy, Ms. Vogel, to sit in this courtroom and say ‘how could you’ and ‘how this’ and ‘how that.’ But I read the facts, and most importantly, I can see the sincerity of your regret.”

“Yeah. I can see it too. The sincerity of it.”

“She’s very sincere about it. Because what she’s got to see—and I often talk about this to young women in this courtroom—when you seek counsel under the covers, when you run and jump into bed with somebody else, people believe the quickest way to get over somebody is to get under somebody else. And that just isn’t true. And when it happens, you create situations you don’t intend that have consequences that you would never intend. And she sees the way it has affected her son—and the confusion. I can see that. And hurting him and having him experience that level of doubt and not have a firm foundation to stand on, or a secure thought as he put it—that is enough to make you understand your consequences and how they’ve affected others.”

“So with that said, thank goodness this courtroom exists, because we have the answers for you today.”

“I’m ready for the results.”

“These results were prepared by DNA Diagnostics and they read as follows—”

“This has been very emotional, Ms. Vogel. You have been very emotional. Is there anything you’d like to say to your son William?”

“Good. I’m sorry that it happened this way. I didn’t know what else to do.”

“William, when you see your mother expressing this kind of regret—you’ve been through a lot. Is there something you’d like to say to your mom?”

“I’m gonna love you either way it goes. You’re my mom.”

“Here we go. In the case of Vogel versus Vogel, to determine whether Daniel Vogel or his brother David Vogel is the father of thirty-one-year-old William Vogel, it has been determined by this court—Mr. Daniel Vogel, you are his father.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much. Finally.”

“Back here. Mr. Vogel, you look shocked.”

“I’m more than shocked.”

“You saw it. I have paid all my life for somebody I didn’t know whether it was mine or not. But now I know. I needed to pay, so that’s water under the bridge. I know that he is mine. I’m glad I paid for him.”

“Ms. Johnson, today there are two men who’ve been tested as possible fathers of your four-month-old daughter. But you say you believe the defendant, Mr. Blackman, is her biological father.”

“That’s right, your honor.”

“Now, Mr. Blackman, you argue that Ms. Johnson had a sexual relationship with two other men. You fear one of those men are the child’s father.”

“Yes, your honor.”

“Okay. So Mr. Blackman, who are these other men?”

“There’s three men they could possibly be her baby daddy. Of course, there’s me. Her ex-boyfriend before me. And this man sitting next to me, who I consider a brother.”

“How did it come to be that you and the man you call a brother could possibly be the father of this child?”

“Since I was in high school, me and him have just been running. But it’s—you know, like we like to live that lavish lifestyle. We’re from Houston, Texas, and we really don’t care about the women in Houston.”

“Your dad—please explain that. You don’t care about any of the women?”

“Yeah. Explain that. My dad, a Casanova, and he taught us two rules. One rule was nobody mess with anybody’s girl. And that second rule was nobody has a girl. You understand? So I get it. We had so much fun back then that it might have cost me being the father of this child that’s in question.”

“So Ms. Johnson, tell me about your relationship with Mr. Blackman.”

“I was already in a relationship. I was well taken care of. I was driving the high-end cars. I was going to the nicest restaurants. Me and my son had no need or want for anything. I jumped out of a relationship with my ex to be with him because there was an instant connection. And two weeks after I moved in with the defendant, I had sex with his brother. We all had a threesome.”

“So there’s three possibilities. Three possible fathers of my daughter.”

“See, she promiscuous. She proven that she promiscuous.”

“Did you hear what she said? Two weeks after she moved in with me from being with another man—”

“You are too—women not supposed to be like that. If you act like that, you get treated like that.”

“From where I sit, Mr. Blackman, it sounds like the pot calling the kettle black.”

“You just said you’re not supposed to have any regard for any girl. Now you meet a girl. You have a connection. You wind up letting your brother have sex with her. You have a threesome. Are you now standing there suggesting one of the things about your feelings hurt?”

“Honestly? Yes.”

“They’re like—I’m not gonna lie. Like any other woman I’ve been with who really loved me, they wouldn’t even accept being with my brother. But she had no problem with it. So it was like a test for me to go ahead and let her go. She’s still with me, though. And you had a baby with me that we purposely did.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Let me follow this story. So you’re in a relationship with an older man. Yes. And then you all decide—out with the old, in with the new. Right? You have an instant connection. You said ‘I’m gonna be with you.’ Yes. How do you end up in the bed with him and his brother?”

“It was his idea. He said, ‘This is how we keep our relationship fresh. This is what they do.’”

“You had only been there—”

“To keep it from getting boring, your honor.”

“She didn’t start it up with me when I was there. They had to wait till I was going to work, your honor. I come home from work, my top lock on my door locked, and they both in the house by themselves. You know I’m knocking on the door. Now, we had already discussed that if anything’s gonna happen, I’m present. I wasn’t present the first time.”

“Let me hear about this conversation. So you basically had given her permission to sleep with your brother?”

“Because in the past, me and my brother Mr. Gross have done that before. So it was a test for her. And she failed the test, honestly.”

“I could open the door and my brother Mr. Gross standing there butt naked. I mean—honestly, because I didn’t want to look like a punk to my brother. You know, I guess it was peer pressure. I just joined in. Because that’s what we do.”

“And he joined in? That’s what we do? But it was a test, though. But she did it.”

“But your feelings were really hurt. You didn’t want her to fail the test, right?”

“But then this was supposed to be a one-time thing. The time Viviana was conceived—”

“Yes. So you say this threesome thing was supposed to be a one-time thing?”

“I’m thinking while I was at work, though. Because after that following week after that one time, my door kept being locked. I kept knocking on the door. So I’m thinking they’ve been doing it more than one time. Honestly, they’ve done it way more.”

The judge called Mr. Gross to the stand. “You call Mr. Blackman brother?”

“Yes, ma’am. I do.”

“You had sex with the young woman he moved into his home. Did you feel like you had permission to do this from your brother?”

“Like he just told you—that’s the way we was raised. Like my dad, he’s a rolling stone. You know, he call it fishing. You throw the bait in, wait for the fish, catch it. If it’s a good fish, you keep it. But if it’s not a good fish, you throw it back.”

“And then what if it gets fried?”

“Ms. Johnson, how many times were you intimate with Mr. Gross?”

“Twice. Both with Vincent’s permission.”

“Twice?”

“Mr. Gross, no yawning—”

“We actually had six or more.”

“More than ten times?”

“More than ten times, yes, ma’am.”

“Bro, quit playing. It was twice.”

“Did you say more than ten times?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Well, okay. Hold on.”

“A lot to you, bro.”

“You know, I’m not gonna lie to you. You know, I made a mistake.”

“This is new to you. I can tell. Mr. Blackman, you started this. It was you who did this. It was your idea.”

“She had sex with my brother more than ten times. She told me that it happened once. Now she’s telling me it happened twice. Now he telling me it happened ten times. I don’t know who to believe. So how am I gonna—”

“I’m not gonna lie to you like that. Come on, Mr. Blackman. I—you know, as much as I want to feel sorry for you, ’cause I can see—”

“Never ran right on in and locked the top lock behind him, Ms. Johnson. So when you found out you were pregnant, who did you think the father was?”

“Well, my instant thought was Vincent. Because we were actually trying to have a baby.”

“I wasn’t trying to have a baby with my ex.”

“Wait a minute. How are you trying to have a baby with a woman and giving her permission to sleep with your brother?”

“That was really just pillow talking, you know? Like that’s how—”

The judge called Ms. Johnson’s mother to the stand.

“Please state your name for the court.”

“I’m Rebecca Johnson. And I’m Elsa’s mother.”

“Were you aware your daughter was in a relationship with Mr. Blackman?”

“Um, not at first. She said that she’d found another roommate, and that’s it. I didn’t know that it was Mr.—”

“So she told you she had found a roommate?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Did she ever tell you about the relationship she had with his brother?”

“No, ma’am.”

“But Elsa is a wild child. And I was so disgusted about her because when she was fifteen, she was sending naked pictures on the cell phone and having sex. So as a Filipino, I don’t approve of that, and I’m not raised like that. So I sent her to the Philippines so she could learn a lesson or tradition. But she never—”

“Hold on, hold on, hold on. Now hold on. We have established that you don’t have any respect for yourself. But you will respect your mother in this courtroom.”

“At some point, you know that she’s pregnant. Did she tell you at that time whether or not she knew who the father was?”

“Um, no, ma’am. But I told her that I hope you will not be like other women that you don’t know the father of your child.”

“So this was your fear. You said to her, ‘I hope you’re not in the position where you don’t know who the father of your child is.’”

“Yes. And what was her response to that?”

“I said I do know who the father of my child is.”

“But the timing is all off. Like, at the end of the day, the doctor originally told her that her due date was sometime in March—”

“No. My original due date was in May. My original due date was May 29th.”

“And when did you get together? In September?”

“But they were going for my last—”

“I would like to see your evidence.”

Mr. Blackman handed the judge a calendar. “That’s basically a calendar, your honor, of possible conception dates, showing that either way it could be me, Lamar—her ex-boyfriend—as well. Because she didn’t move in with me until like the 20th.”

“So let me review this. The dates outlined in yellow—Ms. Johnson, are these the dates you believe she was intimate with Mr. Gross?”

“Your brother. And you, of course. Look at the 15th—that’s the date of the threesome, right? Viviana’s birth is on the 8th of June. So as you look at this calendar, who do you believe Viviana’s father is?”

“I believe it’s Mr. Blackman.”

“I believe it’s not one of ours.”

“I believe that’s not true. If you have sex with two men, you have six or four—you have six or four? You have six—had six or eight? You had six or sixteen. So I don’t know who it is.”

“Wild. Like, man, I’m talking about the whole population in Houston probably could be the father of this baby. Like it’s no—”

“You’re the pappy. I got two other children from a previous relationship, and they look nothing like Viviana. And my daughter—because I have the dominant genes in our relationship. He has the dominant genes in that relationship. But I have the dominant genes in our relationship.”

“Do you all have a relationship?”

“Yes, your honor. We’re engaged.”

“Y’all engaged?”

“We was engaged until I found out she had sex with my brother more than ten times in this courtroom today.”

“Y’all know that’s why you asked me to be your best man.”

“So right now you just ended your engagement, man?”

“Your brother is surprised, Mr. Blackman. That’s why you asked me to be your best man.”

“He asked you to be his best man?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“So you should have thought—”

“He was joking with me, you know? Because we young—I’m twenty, he’s twenty-one.”

“Married? Come on, come on now. What did you—are you serious? The reason—don’t marry her, bro. Come on. You know—do you all see this beautiful—she’s a beautiful queen. She’s beautiful. I wouldn’t mind her being mine. But at the same time, I wouldn’t want no ho to be my baby mama.”

“Hold on now. We got to use respectful language in this courtroom.”

“So wait a minute, Mr. Blackman. What are your hopes? Are you hoping that this beautiful little girl is yours at the end of the day?”

“Your honor, I am. I always wanted a little girl. And honestly, I do truly love Elsa. I don’t know what it is about her, but I do love her. I want to possibly move past a lot of stuff that we’ve been through. We built a rapport. When she was pregnant, I was there at the hospital when Viviana was born. I signed the birth certificate. I’m a good father. It’s just that I want to make sure that this baby is mine before we move forward. Or it’ll help me figure out what I need to do next in my life.”

“I don’t know why he’s denying my daughter. He signed the birth certificate. Why would you sign the birth certificate?”

“I had sex with his brother.”

“So why you signing the birth certificate, then?”

“I was the only one there. You had convinced me with your conniving ways that I possibly was the only choice.”

The judge held up a hand. “Before we go to the results, you know I have to say—all of you have come in here joking. But the jokes were based upon some very bad advice that someone gave you: that girls don’t matter. Mr. Blackman, it backfired on you. You’re mad because they slept together more times than you gave permission for. It’s just a mess. This whole nonsense about what you’re gonna do with girls and then wind up falling in love and then ruining it with your test that you told her you’d do—she failed. And then guess what? You still love her.”

“Ms. Johnson, before you think you’re off the hook—the way you’re running around, guy after guy, sleeping with men that are brothers, threesomes. This is no way for a beautiful young woman to behave. It’s ridiculous. You’re gone from an old man to brothers. And you know that’s nothing to be proud of. You understand that, right?”

“I know, your honor.”

“And walking into a courtroom and having to stand next to your mother and basically admit you don’t know who your child’s father is—not to mention the fact that even if the man was silly enough to give you permission to sleep with his brother one time, you took that inch and walked a mile. Some of this is your doing. Do you understand?”

“Yes, your honor.”

“All of you all come in here talking silly about sex like it’s an extracurricular activity that you all just figuring out how to do after school. It’s not a game. And now this beautiful little girl is here, and you’re her mother, and one of you may be her father. This is not sufficient for her. Because she deserves more. Now I’ve heard enough. Let’s go to the results.”

“These results were prepared by DNA Diagnostics and they read as follows—”

“In the case of Johnson versus Blackman, when it comes to the paternity of three-month-old Viviana Blackman and whether Mr. Blackman or Mr. Gross is the biological father—it has been determined that her father is Mr. Blackman.”

“I told you. I told you. I told you so.”

“Now listen. One thing I can say about you two young people—you all have had your fun and sown your oats. Okay? I won’t even get into what I’ve heard today and how disgusting most of it was. But now it’s time to grow up. Both of you. It’s time for you all to go behind your door in your home and turn the top lock—and lock him out. Work on building this family, if that’s what you want to do together. But most importantly, figuring out how to raise this beautiful little girl together. Am I clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Court is adjourned.”

“Ms. Williams, you’ve petitioned the court for a DNA test because you are certain Mr. Glover is your son Ricardo’s biological father. Your son has a major operation coming up, and you say identifying his father must take place before the surgery. Is that correct?”

“Correct.”

“Mr. Glover, you claim you are not Ricardo’s father and have proof that his biological father is your brother?”

“Yes, your honor.”

“So, Ms. Williams, tell us why you had to open your case.”

“Your honor, I haven’t seen this man in years. My son has cerebral palsy. He’s undergoing a surgery because now he has a magnetic rod in his back because he has scoliosis. So they’re going to put the real spinal rod in his back. I’m not his blood type. So if he needs a blood transfusion, he needs the absent parent. So they was asking, can I find the devil? I know the dad. So I’m doing this blood test because he’s the dad. If something happens, I have to fall back on his dad.”

“And I understand it’s important to have your full medical history as well. And so identifying the father is important for that reason. I understand you say you haven’t seen Mr. Glover in years?”

“Yes, correct.”

“Mr. Glover, you haven’t seen Ms. Williams in years?”

“No, your honor. From the beginning, I kind of had doubts that he was my son anyway. And I’ve been trying to get it situated. It ain’t like I just ran off or anything.”

“But how long has it been since you’ve seen Ricardo?”

“It’s been about five or six years.”

“Five or six years since you’ve seen this beautiful little boy?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“This is not the first time that we went to paternity court. They got a paternity court. Where was it? It wasn’t—but child support. And the first time we went, we did the DNA test. And they was telling me that she had to come down there first. And then we went back a second time and a third time, and it never happened. After that, I just moved to Texas.”

“You think she’s been avoiding it because she knows you’re not Ricardo’s biological father?”

“I feel like she was avoiding it for some reason.”

“Once you felt like she was avoiding it, then that’s why the five or six years passed. You left it alone because you felt like ‘I’m really not the father.’”

“Yes, ma’am. I moved to a whole other state after the last time of us not doing the DNA test. I just went on about my business.”

“So am I correct in saying if you truly thought you were Ricardo’s father—believed that test had taken place as you planned and it was determined you were the father—you would have been happy to be his father? You would have been there?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“This man took my virginity. So I don’t know how you feel. I don’t care how you feel. But he took my virginity. This is his child. It’s nobody else. I want to be hauling his back. And the case closed because he never did the DNA test.”

“All right, let me get back to the relationship. I want to understand, Mr. Glover—Ms. Williams says she was a virgin when she met you. Do you remember that? What was the nature of your relationship? Were you boyfriend and girlfriend? What were you doing?”

“We were dating for a minute. I want to say it lasted for about a year. But it wasn’t like we were just staying together or anything. We wasn’t around each other all the time. I was in school. Both of us was young. We wasn’t around each other all the time.”

“So you didn’t feel like it was necessarily exclusive?”

“No.”

“So what makes you believe—if she was a virgin when you met her—that so quickly after meeting you she would be with other guys, too? Did you hear something?”

“Because initially, that’s what it was. And besides that, I heard something from my mother. And it was after that it just kind of threw me for a loop.”

“I’d like to hear from your mother, ma’am. Please stand and step over to the podium. State your name for the court.”

“I’m Lily Daniel.”

“Ms. Daniels, your son Mr. Glover says he heard something from you in reference to Ms. Williams that led him to believe that she was with other people. What do you know about this?”

“Well, first of all, I feel that there wasn’t really a strong relationship with Ricardo and Ms. Williams. But I did see her with someone in the neighborhood. And it appeared to me that her head was in his lap and she was giving him oral sex. And I did tell my son about that. And later on, after I had moved out of that neighborhood, the same individual brought Ms. Williams over to my house. Didn’t drop her off at my house—dropped her off at a business a little bit up the street. The whole while I’m sitting on the porch with a friend, and I’m watching her get out of this individual’s car and get the baby out of the car, get the car seat out of the trunk, put the baby in the car seat, and walk down to my house. And I’m saying, ‘Why didn’t you just have him drop you off right here? It’s no problem.’ She said, ‘I got off the bus.’”

“So you’re saying you saw her with this person before she was pregnant, and then after she had the baby?”

“Yes.”

“Which led you to believe this was an ongoing relationship.”

“I feel like that wasn’t the only relationship this young lady was involved in. To be honest, Ricardo looks like my younger son. He looks more like my younger son than he does my older son.”

“So you believe Ms. Williams also had sex with your younger son?”

“I believe Ms. Williams was a bit busy, young lady. And she’s not the version that she claimed she was. That’s what I believe.”

“Mr. Glover, your mom has testified that she believes that Ricardo looks more like your younger brother. You believe that as well?”

“Yes, ma’am. I thought that from the beginning.”

“And where did you all get this knowledge that she was in a sexual relationship with your younger brother?”

“He has sent me some text messages saying that she had wrote him a letter saying that the baby was looking more and more like them every day. And after that, I have text messages for me.”

“I’ve got some evidence. May I see that evidence, please?”

The judge reviewed the texts. “And pretty much he was just telling me that she had sent him a letter of a picture of the baby and everything, saying that it’s starting to look more and more like him.”

“So this is a text exchange between Mr. Glover and his brother. The message reads: ‘Pinky wrote me the other day talking about the baby looking more and more like me, bro. I told you that’s your baby. You can be straight up with me.’”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I was like his older sister to all of them. I was like their sister.”

“No, you weren’t. Because we’re not making babies with your sister. I’m trying to understand you, then, in that moment. You said ‘You can be straight up with me’ because he was kind of acknowledging that he could be the father. And your point was ‘you can tell me.’”

“Yes, ma’am. I asked him from the beginning anyway. And he denied it from the jump. His main thing was ‘Nah, bro. I ain’t never messed around with her. But I did see her stuff one time. But I ain’t never do nothing with her.’ And I was like, ‘Man, come on, man.’”

“He’s saying he saw her naked but nothing happened?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. Were you sleeping with Mr. Glover’s brother?”

“No. But you do admit you had a very close relationship.”

“I never gave or was—said to anyone else. I never even gave him—I wasn’t gonna make someone put my mouth on anyone else. Like this stuff wasn’t gonna come out. I was a virgin. He knows I was a virgin. You don’t know nothing. You wasn’t sleeping with me.”

“Maybe yours. And I’m not the only person that—”

“You’re losing me. All right, hold on. So basically, Ms. Williams, you’re saying that everything they’re saying about you is a lie?”

“Yep. He was the first person and the only person I had sex with. Correct. And that’s why you know he is Ricardo’s father. Honestly.”

“You claim you never had an intimate relationship with Mr. Glover’s brother?”

“No.”

“But my baby looks like him.”

“Genetically, that’s right. It doesn’t matter. I’m sorry. They don’t even have the same—it doesn’t matter.”

“So Ms. Williams, do you want to see this letter?”

“What is that?”

“A letter from his brother.”

“Let me see that evidence, please. So this is a letter you received from Mr. Glover’s brother, correct? And you submitted this letter to the court to show—’Love always, Uncle.’ Oh, he signed it ‘Uncle.’”

“So you’re saying this is him acknowledging ‘I’m not the father. I am the uncle.’”

“Exactly.”

“All right, well, let me scan through this letter real quick and see what else he’s talking about. ‘Play-Doh.’ Okay, hold on. Let me circle this part right here. It says, ‘Y’all have to come up. I really want to see y’all. Ricardo is getting big. How old is he? He looks just like me.’ That’s his uncle. I mean, I never slept with him. My brother hadn’t ever bought anything for any of my other kids. I did so much for him. And I don’t see the reason why he would just go and buy the baby three and four outfits.”

“Ms. Williams, what are you hoping for? That he’d be more active? That he’d come down to this hospital? That we get this—let this end? Because I don’t want no negativity around my child. All he knows is positive. He’s happy. He’s always happy. I’m just tired of going through this. It’s simple.”

“You have a lot of weight to carry. I can see that that is troubling you.”

“I mean, it’s overwhelming. But I’ve been doing it for so long. And I’ve reached out plenty of times. Either you’re in or you’re out. It’s not—I mean, you—he knows I was a virgin. He knows we didn’t—we wasn’t using protection from the beginning. I asked for a DNA test. Who let a baby come over their house if they have doubt? Not me.”

“First of all, I have been around this baby. I don’t have a problem with that. But I would like to know for sure if this is his baby.”

“Well, of course. And if he is, what are your plans for this beautiful boy?”

“You know what? If he is, for me, I just apologize to her for even downing her. I mean, because from the beginning I had my doubts. And it ain’t like I don’t have reasons.”

“So why you didn’t tell me?”

“I did.”

“You never told me your brother went to do—or the other guy—your brother went to do DNA test multiple—”

“Your brother’s taking you to your doctor’s appointment.”

“He never took me to my doctor appointment. How was he getting out of there? Why you wasn’t taking—”

“I’m just saying what does it take? Talk was getting there. Coming up. And what matters is we need to figure out who his biological father is.”

“I feel like you should have been through that. This has to be a lot on you.”

“It is. Ricardo’s had five surgeries. This will be his sixth. The stakes are high here.”

“How do you really feel?”

“I feel betrayed. Because I should have slept with the brother. That’s just how I feel. If you want to keep putting it on your brother—I should have. If he’s gonna be there, I should have.”

“You probably did.”

“Who you slept with? It’s all right.”

“Well, the only way we’re gonna figure out what the real truth is is to get the results. I’m ready for the envelope.”

“These results were prepared by DNA Diagnostics and they read as follows. In the case of Williams versus Glover, when it comes to the child Ricardo Williams, it has been determined by this court—Mr. Glover, you are the father.”

“What’s up? What’s up? What’s up? That’s your handsome boy.”

“Thank you. And I just want to say I’m sorry. But it could have been handled. And I apologize, though.”

“You need to apologize to him, too. He’ll understand.”

“Is there anything you’d like to say to Mr. Glover? Are you okay?”

“I just—I just wanted to know this is his child. And I asked for help because I just need it. I just needed this to be over. I’m tired. I was tired of going back and forth.”

“And will it mean something to you to have Mr. Glover and his mom—just to have the other part of Ricardo’s village there to support you?”

“Yes. It means something to him because he comprehends well. So it means something to him because it’s not easy to take care of him. But I do it. And I’m not talking about financially. I’m talking about his cries. It’s hard. But I do it with the help of family, friends, my dad, my mom.”