“Mr. Roll, you are here to prove you are not the father of Miss Gedallian’s twin daughters. Yes, ma’am. You say she’s infatuated with you, and that’s the reason she wants to pin her babies on you. Yes, Shawna.”

Judge Lake turned to the young woman holding an infant in each arm. “Ms. Gedallian, you say there is no question Mr. Roll is the father of your twins. You say he left you with two babies and a broken heart. Yes, Gianna?”

“Mr. Roll, how has this paternity suit affected you?”

The young man squared his shoulders. “First, I want to say honestly, she’s obsessed with me. She would take pictures of me. She would walk past my job staring at me. Then when me and my ex broke up, I seen like members of pictures that I’ve never seen before. I didn’t even know it was being taken.”

“So you said you saw pictures you never knew were being taken.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Judge Lake turned to the mother. “Are you obsessed with him, Ms. Gedallian?”

Gianna nodded without hesitation. “No, Your Honor. I am not.”

“How did this relationship start?”

“On breaks and stuff, I would go over to his job and get drinks or whatever. He was somewhat of like a player, you would say. He would flirt with everybody there. So he was flirting with me. I was flirting back. After a while, I looked him up on Facebook, and we started writing. I thought there was something going on. We were flirting with each other all the time. After a while, he invited me over to his house.”

“So you’re saying you weren’t obsessed, you were just interested.”

“Right.”

“And this was proceeding like a normal courtship. You talked on the phone, you Facebooked, you sent texts.”

Judge Lake turned back to the father. “So at this point, Mr. Roll, were you single?”

He shook his head. “No. When she sent me the message on Facebook, I had pictures of me and my ex together who I would go trip for vacation. She was well aware I was in a relationship when she hit me up. She went through my Facebook and was able to find out how to message me. She seen the pictures of me and my ex.”

Judge Lake’s voice sharpened. “If you had a girlfriend at the time, how did you end up flirting and being in this full courtship thing with Ms. Gedallian? Don’t get quiet now.”

He shrugged. “I’m a friendly person. I get along with anybody. It’s hard not to like me. I didn’t really feel like I was being flirtatious in the beginning because I was in a relationship with a girl and was happy. But then as time went on, on my part, I just felt like our relationship was going downhill. That’s when she hit me up on Facebook, and it went on from there.”

Judge Lake turned to Gianna. “Were you starting a relationship with Mr. Roll, or were you all just flirting?”

“When we started talking, I thought there was a little more going on. A relationship starting. And then until he told me that he had a girlfriend.”

“So he tells you, ‘I have a girlfriend.’”

“He had a girlfriend after we already had slept together.”

Judge Lake’s eyebrows rose. “Wait. When you came to my home, I wasn’t paying my bills by myself. Someone else was living there. I had pictures on the wall. You had her at your house.”

Gianna nodded. “Yes, ma’am. He wasn’t trying to hide it.”

“You just bring another woman into your girlfriend’s house?”

He looked down. “I was wrong.”

“Were you using protection?”

He shook his head. “No, Your Honor. We weren’t.”

Judge Lake turned back to Gianna. “When you all were having this flirtation, you thought it was a relationship budding. He just thought it was nothing casual. When did it change?”

“When he told me he had a girlfriend. I should have stepped back and just stopped completely. But at that time, my feelings were already starting for him. And we just kept doing it. It was wrong, but we continued to do what we were doing.”

Mr. Roll shook his head. “I told her what the situation was, and in my mind, she understood what was going on. Then when she started catching feelings—and I know she would catch feelings because she would buy me things, bring me food to work—I tried to step back.”

Gianna’s voice rose. “Your Honor, he knew that I was catching feelings for him. I made it known to him. And he said that he was catching feelings for me too.”

He shrugged again. “I told you what you wanted to hear.”

“So you admitted it. You admitted, Mr. Roll, you did tell her you had feelings for her too.”

“I just told her what she wanted to hear. I was leading her on.”

“You were leading her on with pride and conviction.”

“Just being a liar.”

“Yeah. Sure. Okay.”

Judge Lake shook her head. “And all the while, you’re with your girlfriend.”

“Yes, Shawna.”

“Did your girlfriend ever find out about this?”

He nodded. “Yeah. She’s on Facebook. My girlfriend seen all the pictures, all the text messages that we had. Even after she broke up with me, my ex continued to send pictures of him that she’s taking to my ex. Even continued to talk to her.”

Judge Lake turned to Gianna. “You sent her the pictures?”

“That was after I found out I was pregnant. And I asked him, ‘What would you do if I was pregnant?’ And he said, ‘It would ruin my life.’ I said, ‘Well, then never mind.’ He says, ‘You’re pregnant, aren’t you?’ I said, ‘You know what? I am. Don’t worry about it.’”

Mr. Roll shook his head. “First she told me she had to tell me something. I didn’t find out for like two or three days later what she wanted to tell me. That’s when she told me she was pregnant. And of course it was gonna ruin my life. I already had two other kids that I take care of. At that time, I didn’t want no more.”

“But you were having unprotected sex. Yes. With someone other than your girlfriend. Yes, Shawna. And telling her that you have feelings for her. That math don’t add up. That’s a recipe for baby making.”

Judge Lake leaned forward. “Let me make sure I’m on point with the facts. You find out you’re pregnant. You tell him. He feels like it’s going to ruin his life. What gets in your mind where you decide, ‘I’m going to send these Facebook pictures over to this woman, his girlfriend’?”

“We talked on the phone, and I told her that I need to tell her something very serious. I’m sorry that I did this.”

“A public service announcement.”

“She needed to know what was going on. He needed to step up to the plate and tell her, but he never was going to tell her.”

Judge Lake turned to Mr. Roll. “So when you found out she sent the pictures over and now your ex knew about this, then what happened?”

He exhaled. “I called and cussed her out.”

“What did your ex do? When I got home one night from work, my ex was at the table sitting there crying. Had the laptop open. I noticed all my clothes was packed. When I went in the room to change clothes, she came out and was like, ‘What’s this?’ And she just started showing me all the pictures. I got the phone and called her. I called her every name that my brain came up with.”

“That’s because you’re angry because she reached out to your ex.”

“I feel like she did it out of spite. After that, I just stopped talking to her. If she come to my job, I wouldn’t really say nothing. I’d just walk away from her.”

Judge Lake turned back to Gianna. “I wasn’t buying the public service announcement testimony anyway. I’m sure that it was out of spite, somewhat. But regardless, at this point, when you find out she’s pregnant, your ex has been informed. Do you think you’re the father at this point?”

Mr. Roll shook his head. “No. Because she was married.”

“Your Honor, I was in the middle of a divorce. I had been separated from my husband for over a year. We were in the middle of a divorce that lasted a very long time.”

Judge Lake looked at him. “So your point is, she wasn’t completely divorced, so she may have still been having sex with someone else. In my mind, I’m sitting there like, ‘It can’t be mine.’”

“Where did you hear that from?”

“People I worked with. Also people that works at the partner she work at.”

Judge Lake turned to Gianna. “Had you slept with somebody else?”

“No, Your Honor.”

“You gotta prove me wrong.”

“Was Mr. Roll there? Did he participate in the birth of the babies?”

Gianna shook her head. “No, Your Honor. After I told him I was pregnant and everything, and after the whole thing happened with his girlfriend, he kept telling me, ‘Leave me alone. I want nothing to do with you. I want nothing to do with the babies. I already have kids. I don’t need any more.’ After a while of trying and trying to get somebody to be there and they keep telling you to leave them alone, eventually you just leave them alone.”

Mr. Roll shook his head. “In my mind, if she had another man on the birth certificate, another man was there for the birth, another man cut the umbilical cord. In my mind, these are not my kids. If they were my kids, I would have some part. You’d reached out to me at some point in time.”

Judge Lake held up a hand. “That’s an important fact. There’s another man on the birth certificate, and another man was there for the birth before it was even done.”

“He said he did not care.”

“Do you remember her approaching you and saying, ‘Look, I have a boyfriend now, and he wants to sign the birth certificate’?”

He shook his head. “No, it didn’t happen like that. She was married. In my mind, it was her husband. So you shouldn’t come to me and ask me. But this person who signed the birth certificate—that’s not your husband, is it?”

Gianna shook her head. “That’s somebody else. He said boyfriend.”

Judge Lake looked at Mr. Roll. “That’s between you and your husband, because you’re married. Oh, oh. So you can go and have unprotected sex with his wife, but then when she gets pregnant, it only has to deal with him?”

“Your Honor, he knew it wasn’t my husband at the time. We all worked in the same building. My husband worked in the same building. My boyfriend worked in the same building as me and Mr. Roll.”

Judge Lake sighed. “Well, ain’t this all in the family? I worked there for five years. You just covered every department in that building. Listen, this is a mess.”

Gianna continued. “But she also got mad at me and she slept with another black guy.”

“You said that to him?”

“I said that because I was upset.”

Judge Lake shook her head. “So now you infused doubt even more doubt into the picture. Throwing gas on a fire.”

“Y’all was already lit. Let’s be clear. Mr. Roll, don’t try to look innocent now. You all over the place. But I will say, if there was any little point that he could have been checked in, you gave him a reason to check out.”

Gianna shook her head. “These babies came out way too light.”

Judge Lake’s voice was firm. “They come in all shades and colors. How can you just look at the children and say—”

“I got fifteen, sixteen nieces and nephews. All of them in my family, dark pair, full of hair babies. When these kids were born, it wasn’t like that.”

“Has anybody else in your family slept with Ms. Gedallian? I mean, I’m not being funny. Because if not, her DNA was not involved. So that can’t be a predictor of what these children are going to look like.”

Judge Lake turned to the bailiff. “I think we need to meet the man that’s on the birth certificate. Ron, yes, ma’am. Can you please escort Mr. Taylor into the courtroom?”

The side door opened, and a young man walked to the front.

“Mr. Taylor, thank you for joining us today. You signed the birth certificate for these beautiful children when they were born, and you were also at the hospital when Ms. Gedallian delivered.”

He nodded. “Me and Sarah had built a relationship. I knew she was pregnant, and obviously I knew they weren’t mine. There were rumors that said they were Willie’s. There were rumors saying that they weren’t Willie’s. After our relationship built, I didn’t care. I just knew that the man wasn’t around.”

“So when you started a relationship, you wanted to—”

“I did. Where I come from, you don’t lay down with a woman without protection or anything like that unless you’re willing to understand that babies can happen. To sit and deny when a woman comes up to you and says these children may be yours—but you didn’t know what was going on between us. I didn’t care. It’s not about you. It’s not about her. It’s about those children.”

“So, Mr. Taylor, in the meantime, you stepped up as their father. These twins. You signed the birth certificate.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“You gave them your last name?”

“Absolutely. You’ve been their dad, along with my mother’s names, which to me is a big deal.”

He looked at the twins. “They’re beautiful. I can see them.”

Judge Lake turned to Mr. Roll. “You can barely look at them. I think it’s time we go to the results. I’m ready. Thank you, Ron. Does anybody have anything they’d like to say before I read these results? Anyone?”

Gianna lifted her chin. “If they are mine, I can be the only man that they need in their life. I appreciate what he did, but I can do it all myself.”

Mr. Taylor spoke quietly. “Anything else you’d like to add, Mr. Taylor?”

“Ms. Gedallian, I don’t want them to lose my last name.”

Judge Lake nodded. “That’s coming out. That birth certificate with their name—were you denying them, or are they listening to do about it confused? So they are yours now? Well, or are they not sure? Like, that’s what I’m here to find out.”

She opened the envelope. “Luckily for us all, I have the results. These results were prepared by DNA Diagnostics and they read as follows. In the case of Roll versus Gedallian, when it comes to five-month-old twins Rebecca and Gracie Taylor, it has been determined by this court that Mr. Roll, you are their father.”

The audience applauded. Mr. Roll sat down slowly.

Gianna wiped her eyes. Mr. Taylor put a hand on her shoulder.

Judge Lake looked at Mr. Roll. “I do want to apologize for not being there. It’s just so much had happened. My anger issues, I just pushed them away. I can see that really hurts you now.”

He swallowed. “My father didn’t raise me my whole life. Me and my brothers and sisters, I did the same thing to them, man. I told myself I’d never do that, you know.”

Judge Lake nodded. “This courtroom is about getting to the truth. But I love it when people come into this courtroom and have the courage to just tell the truth. You admitted you had some doubt. But what I thought was even better about that, and that showed me who you were as a man, is that you admitted that you let anger get the best of you.”

Gianna shook her head. “I appreciate what he did, but I’m the only man that them girls need in their life.”

“You may want your name on the birth certificate, but that’s not going to happen.”

“We’ll see.”

Judge Lake held up a hand. “This is a difficult situation. Mr. Roll, with this information you’ve gotten today, you would have to proceed in your home state to have his name removed. So you’ve got some catching up to do, Mr. Roll.”

He nodded. “Yes, Shawna.”

“And Mr. Taylor, you’ve got some adjusting to do.”

He nodded. “Yes.”

“And Ms. Gedallian, you’re going to have some mediating to do.”

The bailiff called the next case.

“Mr. Youngbird, you claim the defendant’s infidelities not only caused you to cancel your wedding but also now to doubt paternity of her two-year-old daughter Peyton. You’re demanding a paternity test to prove you are not the father.”

He stood, holding up a ring. “This ring, Your Honor. Our loyalty, our trust, our family. The way we handle things day to day is at stake.”

Judge Lake nodded. “That’s a lot. It’s truly affected your relationship entirely and your ability to be a family.”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

Ms. Samknapp shook her head. “I don’t understand why I came clean about it. If he’s still having trust issues, then what are we doing here? Why are we still together? He forgave me for it, but says he’s unable to move forward with the wedding until he knows for sure.”

“And that hurts you as well.”

“Yes, because I feel like I was honest. And I feel like if I was honest with him about that one time, then why would I still lie? If there’s that doubt once, there’s not that doubt again. Why would I continue to lie? I did something wrong, and I admitted my mistake.”

Judge Lake turned to Mr. Youngbird. “Take me back. Tell me a little bit about this relationship.”

“We started young. She was sixteen, I was seventeen. I always wanted to be with her. I always wanted her to be mine. Ever since then, we’ve been stuck like glue.”

Ms. Samknapp nodded. “I couldn’t imagine life without him. We thought all the pieces were going to fit together. And they did for a while.”

“Take me to the day when she told you she was pregnant.”

Mr. Youngbird smiled sadly. “When I found out that she was pregnant, at first I thought it was a joke. But then she sent me a picture of the paper of the HCG test. That was the happiest day.”

Ms. Samknapp nodded. “He called me immediately after, bawling. He couldn’t believe it was the truth.”

“So you were very happy.”

“Oh yeah. Extremely.”

Judge Lake could see the emotion. “You found out you were having a baby.”

“Yeah. I made her dinner. I was excited. I was happy. I called off work because we were finally a family. I just found out that I’m we’re pregnant. We made dinner. We sat down and just enjoyed each other’s company. I asked her to marry me.”

“You proposed.”

“Five minutes after. I just grabbed her hand.”

“And so you proposed, she said yes, of course. And then what happened?”

Ms. Samknapp took a breath. “Before I got pregnant, right before Christmas, we were doing fine. And then all of a sudden we got in a petty argument. I can’t remember exactly what it was over. It lasted for a couple of days. I ended up just wanting to give him his space because he didn’t want to talk to me. And honestly, I didn’t want to talk to him at the moment. So I went to the bar and I got drunk. And I ended up not remembering anything that happened to me that night. My intention wasn’t to cheat on him. I didn’t go out to have sex with another guy. I went out to just relax, take a breath, just recollect my thoughts and let him have some time to breathe.”

Mr. Youngbird shook his head. “But she can’t explain to me. I want details. Every man wants details. Who did it? Who it was? When it happened? Why they did it?”

Ms. Samknapp’s voice cracked. “The only thing I can remember from that night is taking a couple sips of my first drink. And the next thing I remember, I’m waking up in somebody’s bed. I don’t know who he is. I don’t know where I am. I don’t know what happened. I looked around to try and find all my stuff. I was trying to recollect what had happened. Nothing came to me. It seems like somebody took advantage of me that night.”

“So you went to the bar to basically drown yourself.”

“Yes. And ended up waking up in a stranger’s bed.”

“Did you have your clothes on partially?”

“At one point.”

Judge Lake turned to Mr. Youngbird. “Did you find out about this night?”

She nodded. “I told him two months after I found out I was pregnant. I tried to break it to him easily, but he could tell right away that I had something on my chest that I wanted to get off. We were still in the beginning of the pregnancy. We were still fresh parents. I was so ashamed of myself for betraying the one that I love, the man that I want to spend the rest of my life with. I wouldn’t have said yes to him when he asked me to marry him if I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life with him.”

“In the beginning, I had no idea. I had made dinner for her. She sat down. Within the first five to seven minutes, she told me, ‘I got some news for you.’ Right then and there, I knew.”

“You knew it was coming.”

“I knew.”

“And when you heard this news that she had this night and cheated, what did you do?”

“I stormed out. I canceled the wedding. I canceled everything.”

“But we didn’t break up,” she said. “He just said the wedding’s off. He walked away. I didn’t talk. Didn’t answer anything.”

Judge Lake looked at her. “It’s not just him that’s hurting. It’s me hurting too. Because that three percent possibility that he’s not her father—I won’t be able to tell her who her father is, because I don’t know.”

Judge Lake turned to Mr. Youngbird. “At what point did you figure out that the other man may be the father?”

“We sat down and I went on an app. We started punching in the days. I actually have it right here.”

He handed up his phone. “In yellow are the dates you were ovulating. In blue are the dates you were intimate with Mr. Youngbird. In red is the date of the one-night stand.”

Both men fell within the window of conception.

Judge Lake turned to Ms. Samknapp. “Once you realized this, did you ever try to find the other guy?”

“I tried to rack my brain to try and remember anything. I can’t even remember the name of the bar. I’m trying to retrace my stuff to see if anything looks familiar. Nothing helped. I can’t remember anything about that night.”

Mr. Youngbird shook his head. “How do I know she’s not going to do that again?”

She shot back. “At least I told you about what I did instead of hiding it from you and going behind your back to one of my really good girlfriends, texting her, telling her to text me so you guys can see each other.”

Judge Lake held up a hand. “Wait a minute. You want to say that what I did was wrong? What you did was wrong too. You may have never gotten together with her, but you still attempted it. You still would have continued if I wouldn’t have stopped you.”

He shook his head. “I wasn’t getting what the satisfaction that you need as a man at home. Exactly. With the woman every day taking care of my child, taking care of you. I wasn’t getting the attention. I’m the breadwinner. I’m the one who makes sense.”

She shook her head. “She hasn’t worked in six years. Why is that, Mr. Young?”

“Because you asked me the day that we got together, ‘Don’t worry, honey, you’ll never have to work a day in your life.’”

The audience applauded. Judge Lake nodded. “That’s me being a man, and that’s me acknowledging—”

“I respect you for that.”

“So I have something to feel good about.”

“You don’t need to do that.”

“I feel like I need to. I want to. I want to feel appreciated.”

Judge Lake shook her head. “I can gather that there is very little trust in the relationship right now.”

She nodded. “I trust him a hundred percent.”

“Do you trust her, Mr. Youngbird?”

He was quiet. “No. He does not. Not wholeheartedly.”

“You asked the court for a lie detector test. That lie detector test was administered. We will have those results in just a moment. I want to know specifically. You say you trust her to an extent. It’s obvious one of the reasons why you don’t trust her.”

“Even while she was pregnant with our daughter, she would get texts saying, ‘Are you up?’ from random numbers. These aren’t numbers that are named in her phone. ‘Are you up? Is Dustin around?’ I’d be awake. I’d catch this.”

She shook her head. “I thought it was his phone because his phone was dead one day and he had my phone.”

Judge Lake turned to him. “Mr. Youngbird, you’re talking like that at home?”

“Yeah.”

“That has to—you told the court that you trusted her somewhat, but it doesn’t seem like you trust her at all.”

He nodded. “Thank you, Your Honor. I don’t see this. Before he goes to bed at night—you don’t trust me.”

“That was testimony you already gave.”

“I do not trust you. You’re right.”

Judge Lake looked at him. “As you look at Peyton, do you see yourself? Do you see a resemblance?”

“Her hair, I mean it’s pure blonde. I’m a redhead. I was a blonde as a child. I got hazel eyes. Her eyes get green. Her eyes get blue. We’ve analyzed her together. You’ll get down there and you’re like, ‘What did I tell you? Look at the blue inside her eyes.’”

“You’ve branded into my head that parents could have a blue-eyed baby. It’s all about the recessive and dominant genes. You don’t know what color her eyes are going to be. So the bottom line is, Mr. Youngbird, this is a beautiful baby. It lives in your home. And when you look at her, you continually have doubt about who her father truly is.”

“It’s about my actions and what I’m doing. There’ll be times when he’s getting ready to go to bed and he’ll be like, ‘Am I gonna wake up with you gone again?’ Which has never happened.”

“That happened one time, and I don’t remember.”

“We’ll just have more than one time. I wake up at twelve in the morning, she’s gone. She fell asleep at the river. Twice. You called me a bitch, so I left.”

She wiped her eyes. “I do love you. But if you love me, you wouldn’t say those things to me.”

Judge Lake shook her head. “This has definitely taken a toll on your relationship. Quite frankly, this is a toxic environment for a child to grow up in. You have to know that.”

She nodded. “I totally agree, Your Honor. But ultimately, what I’m hoping today is that we can figure out what the truth really is.”

“The first thing we’re going to do is get the results of the lie detector test.”

She looked at him. “Mr. Youngbird, in your testimony today, you’ve said you are fully aware of one instance of cheating that night. You suspect there may be others. You wanted to know if there were others.”

“Yes.”

“They’re about to find out that your insecurities have eaten you.”

Judge Lake opened the report. “Ms. Samknapp, you met with a licensed polygraph expert. Yes, Your Honor. And what do you believe we will find out?”

“That I’m telling the truth, one hundred and ten percent.”

“You were asked if you had sexual relations with anyone other than Mr. Youngbird since the one-night stand you admitted to. You said no. The lie detector determined that was the truth.”

She exhaled. The audience murmured.

Judge Lake turned to him. “It hurts your feelings. You do understand, however, that Peyton’s paternity is still in question.”

“Yes, Your Honor. I do understand.”

“We looked at the calendar. Both men fall within the window of conception. That’s true.”

“Do you remember the twenty-second?”

She shook her head. “I don’t remember it.”

He looked at her. “You want to tell me something I already don’t know?”

Judge Lake held up the envelope. “I’d like to tell you both something you don’t know, which is the truth. I have the results. Are you ready?”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“No matter what these results say, you have to figure out how to move forward. You two have spoken about how much you love one another, how much you’ve waited to be together. Mentally, it’s difficult for me to grasp the fact that there’s a little bit of doubt. Let’s get the truth.”

She opened the envelope.

“These results were prepared by DNA Diagnostics and they read as follows. In the case of Youngbird versus Samknapp, when it comes to two-year-old Peyton Youngbird, it has been determined by this court that Mr. Youngbird, you are the father.”

The audience applauded. She burst into tears. He stood frozen, then dropped to one knee.

“Will you marry me? Yet again?”

She laughed through her tears and pulled him up.

Judge Lake smiled. “That’s what this courtroom is about. Bringing families together. And it’s nice to see you all on the same side of the aisle. I think we can move forward now.”

He nodded. “We can move on.”

“You promise? You promise that everything that you’ve said to me in the past stays here in this courtroom and will not come home with us?”

He nodded. “It’ll never flow out my mouth again.”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

The bailiff called the final case.

“Ms. Wiley, you state your ex-fiancé happily got you pregnant but now refuses to do anything for your one-year-old son Jabroderick. You claim today’s DNA test will prove he is Jabroderick’s father. Is that correct?”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

Judge Lake turned to the man across the aisle. “Mr. Ziegler, you claim Ms. Wiley was nothing more than a fling who is now trying to pin her baby on you. You say she was sleeping with multiple men and she should have opened her case against them. Is that correct?”

“That’s true.”

“So, Ms. Wiley, explain why you’ve opened your case today.”

She lifted her chin. “I opened my case today just to prove that Jabroderick is his son. No matter what, nobody told him. He know they didn’t sleep with me. He did. So I need this just to prove to him that he’s losing out on raising his son.”

Judge Lake turned to Mr. Ziegler. “Are you letting everybody get in your head?”

“No, ma’am. This is wrong. The case is on her own. Just because she’s standing there saying that I’m one hundred percent the father, it does not prove to me that I am. I think I’m only being targeted because she knows I have a great relationship with my other kids and I’m her best option at this point. That’s why I’m here today. To see if I’m a father or not.”

“So, Ms. Wiley, how did you meet?”

“We was talking through social media. Then it ended up being so one night I was uncomfortable where I was staying, and he extended the offer for me to come spend the night where he was staying. I did that. The next day I got out to leave, and I was like, ‘Well, I’m gonna go home. Thank you for letting me stay.’ He was like, ‘No, you don’t have to go home.’ So I ended up staying. Our relationship just went from there.”

“And you became boyfriend and girlfriend?”

“No, we became boyfriend and girlfriend. On top of that, in 2016 we got engaged. We were supposed to be married August 26th.”

Mr. Ziegler shook his head. “We wasn’t girlfriend and boyfriend.”

“What was it?”

“I bought her a promise ring. She took a picture of the ring on her finger, and she posted on Facebook. Everybody started commenting.”

“So you proposed through social media and didn’t even know it?”

“I didn’t propose.”

“What was the promise associated with the promise ring?”

“That I’ll be a friend. That’s it. Just friends.”

“But it wasn’t just a friendship, because you were having sex and living together.”

He hesitated. “She was stalking me for a period of time.”

“So you found out you were pregnant.”

“I thought I was pregnant in December. I conceived in November. I told Tobias. Actually, my friend called him and told him as we was leaving the clinic. He immediately told her, ‘That’s not mine. They don’t got nothing to do with me.’ And hung up the phone in her face.”

Mr. Ziegler nodded. “Because at the time, I know for a fact that I wasn’t the only one having sex with her. For a fact.”

“So wouldn’t you be a possibility?”

“It’s a possibility. Yeah. I was having sex with her during the time she was conceived, but I was not the only one.”

“Since your pregnancy, I didn’t take it to no doc’s appointment. I didn’t do none of it. Why? Because I knew the possibility of me not being the dad. I didn’t want to go through the hurt.”

“Were you there for the birth?”

“I came to the hospital after he was born. Just to see if he had any features of mine.”

“Did you bond with the baby at all?”

“He never seen my name inside of the house. I never touched the baby. Nothing like that. He didn’t see a picture. He didn’t do nothing.”

“Did you sign the birth certificate?”

“No, I didn’t.”

Judge Lake shook her head. “That’s thirteen months of you not being there. So we understand you got to the hospital. You don’t think the baby is yours. Why? What are the other reasons why you doubt that Jabroderick is your biological child?”

“The number one reason is she was dealing with a close family member of mine when I met her. Keep that in mind. So I’m not just gonna jump and claim that baby. The second reason is I can’t even look at the baby in the hospital. The baby has no feature of me. Here goes the baby right here. The baby has no features of mine. Third reason is when I would go visit her at her house, a kid was steady saying, ‘I have a new daddy. I have a new daddy.’ A kid at her house when I came to visit. ‘You’re not my dad anymore. I have a new daddy.’”

Judge Lake turned to Ms. Wiley. “She’s not telling that. That’s false, Your Honor.”

“I’m not lying.”

“‘You’re not my dad anymore. I have a new daddy.’”

“So that’s what made you believe that there’s another man coming over to that house, and they were referring to this new man as Daddy.”

“That’s it. And that wasn’t you.”

“That wasn’t me.”

“So who do you think could be Jabroderick’s biological father?”

“That’s who I think could be his father. Starts with a J. I can’t pronounce the name. But the little guy was saying ‘J’ with some store. With a J.”

Judge Lake turned to Ms. Wiley. “Were you sleeping with somebody else during this time?”

She nodded. “I was. Okay. I was. So at the time, Judge, when he came, we had stopped talking to him. Because at the end of the day, I’ve been talking to you for four years, as you say a fling or whatever may have you. And I’ve been crazy just to talk to just you while you’ve been talking to multiple women. So I was with someone else. Okay. But I was still messing around with Mr. Ziegler.”

“So Jabroderick’s father could be this person or Mr. Ziegler.”

“Yes.”

“Were you honest with Mr. Ziegler about that, or did you just tell him it was his?”

“I just told him it was just his.”

“Why would you tell one there’s two possibilities and the other there’s only one?”

“Because I just told Mr. Ziegler because—”

Judge Lake shook her head. “I want to figure out the timeline. So, Ms. Wiley, when did you have sex with Mr. Ziegler?”

“I had sex with Mr. Ziegler the day before Thanksgiving and on the night of Thanksgiving.”

“All right. So then when did you have sex with the guy whose name starts with J?”

“The first full week of November.”

“First full week, that’s November 5th through the 11th. All right. Now, when was Jabroderick born?”

“He was born August 10th, 2018.”

“If I go to the conception calculator, the window of conception would be November 10th through November 16th. Let’s go back to the iPad. You said you had sex with the other guy the 5th through the 11th. So that would point to the man with the name that starts with J.”

“But he’s not. How do you know that?”

“Because he’s not me. And Mr. Cleveland—we used protection. So I know for a fact that it’s not within the whole year of 2017. I was still sleeping around with Mr. Ziegler unprotected.”

“So, Ms. Wiley, you told Mr. Cleveland that he was also the biological father?”

“I did.”

“But did you tell him that Mr. Ziegler was a possibility?”

“He already knew. On account of it was just me being spiteful.”

“So Mr. Cleveland, it was just a casual flame?”

“That’s all. He knew about I—he was actually like my best friend. Someone I could run to. He knew about how Mr. Ziegler treated me and damaged me. He was just someone that I could talk to at the moment.”

Judge Lake turned to the bailiff. “Well, you know what? I want to talk to him, too. Jerome, will you please escort Mr. Cleveland? I’m gonna have you come in, and we’re gonna go right up to the witness stand.”

A young man walked in.

“Before we get started, can you pronounce your first name?”

“Generational.”

“Generational Cleveland. Baby oil. I’m scared to ask why. We’re gonna leave that alone.”

Judge Lake turned back to the case. “So we’re talking about baby Jabroderick, whose name also starts with a J. Do you believe you are Jabroderick’s biological father?”

He shook his head. “No. She had told me about this guy. She had already told me who the real baby daddy was.”

“But I’m talking about you.”

“No, I know what you mean. No, it’s not me.”

“Were you using protection when you had sex with Ms. Wiley?”

“No, ma’am.”

“So how can you say you know it’s not? It only happened like three times.”

“It only takes one.”

“So, Ms. Wiley, in early November, which is the exact time of the window of conception, you still don’t believe you’re the biological father? Even though you had sex, admittedly, with no protection, during the window of conception?”

He shook his head. “I remember in the summertime it was hot. I don’t think it was in November. That must have been somebody else. That wasn’t me.”

Judge Lake turned to Mr. Ziegler. “Your body language is interesting. Arms folded. What are you feeling?”

“Nothing. I’m just here trying to figure out the truth. I know it’s a possibility of me being a dad. I know I was having sex with her during the time of conception. I’m here trying to figure out the truth because I’ve been through a situation like this before. It’s hurtful. I can’t even begin to explain how that feels. To raise a child up to find out it’s not yours. So I’m here to protect my heart space, really. That’s what it is. I’m not saying I’m not the daddy. It’s a strong possibility that I’m not. But I know it’s a possibility that I am too.”

Judge Lake nodded. “I’m gonna get the truth. That’s why I’m here. At the end of the day, both of you have admitted that you’re having sex with her without protection.”

He nodded. “That’s why I say it’s a strong possibility I am, strong possibility I’m not. I’m here for the truth.”

Judge Lake turned to Ms. Wiley. “I need to ask you respectfully. Was there anybody else you were intimate with during that time that you haven’t told the court?”

She nodded slowly. “Yes. There is. So there’s a third person.”

The audience murmured.

“I told you I’m telling him, as a woman, and I’m telling the court as a woman today that I just need help finding out who my child’s father is.”

Judge Lake’s voice softened. “I hear you speak about that, and I can see the emotion in your face when you say you just want your baby to have a daddy. What does that mean to you?”

She wiped her eyes. “I know what it’s like not to have one. I just want my child to have a father. I was looking for it to be two parents in one household, but I don’t even care as long as you do your part and I could do mine, speaking co-parent. I just want him to know that he has a dad so that he can know. Like I knew growing up that it wasn’t my mom always saying, ‘Your daddy don’t want to be around.’ I don’t want to strip my child of having his dad around him.”

Judge Lake nodded. “I understand, honey. That was beautifully said. Thank you for your transparency. So much of the testimony has felt so transactional. ‘I was just doing this with him, and then we was just doing this, and then we was doing this.’ Even at the beginning, it was like you were getting engaged, and it really sounded like in your mind you thought you were having a relationship. Then Mr. Ziegler just shot that down like, ‘No, we weren’t.’ And even though you may be having sex with other people, which is not necessarily the right thing to do, I can see that pull in you that just really wanted to try to have a family.”

She nodded. “That’s all I asked for.”

“So, Ms. Wiley, if Mr. Ziegler or Mr. Cleveland are not Jabroderick’s biological father and it is this other guy, do you know how to reach him?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“All right. Well, if he needs confirmation, this court is here for you. Because we want to get down to the bottom of this while Jabroderick is still young, so that he never has to know this happened. Jerome, I’m ready for the envelope.”

The bailiff handed it over.

“These results were prepared by DNA Diagnostics and they read as follows. In the case of Wiley versus Ziegler, pertaining to whether Mr. Ziegler or Mr. Cleveland is the father of one-year-old Jabroderick Wiley, it has been determined by this court that the biological father is Mr. Ziegler.”

The audience applauded. Ms. Wiley burst into tears.

Judge Lake pointed at Mr. Ziegler. “That’s your baby boy. Handsome young man, too. Calm down. Don’t clown in here. That’s your son.”

He stared at the judge, then at the baby. “Yes, ma’am. Handsome young man.”

Judge Lake turned to Ms. Wiley. “What are you feeling right now?”

She wiped her eyes. “It feels good. I feel good. But I feel hurt. Because we could have been done this. I’ve been trying to push him to get a test for the longest. He could have been here as a father. And it’s been thirteen months to do it. But I thank you for your help.”

Mr. Ziegler nodded slowly. “I’m a great father. I just didn’t want to get my heart caught up into the little guy and it come out not to be mine. Now that I know everything, I’ll take care of my business like I’m supposed to, like I do with the rest of my kids.”

Judge Lake looked at him. “You’re gonna help raise them? Say something too.”

He shook his head. “Don’t say nothing. You don’t need to say nothing.”

“No, I mean, me and her are like best friends.”

Judge Lake shook her head. “He’s got a baby boy that’s gonna be counting on him, that’s going to be looking at him to show him an example of what fatherhood should be and manhood should be. You gotta show up. If you’re raggedy, he’s gonna be raggedy. I’m serious. If you’re inconsistent, he’s going to learn that inconsistency is the way of life. If you mistreat his mother, you’re going to give him an example of how to mistreat women. Everything. Now, right.”