“Mr. Bell, you say you’ve spent approximately seven thousand dollars caring for a child you are positive is not your son. You say you know who the father is. You say your ex-girlfriend, Miss Clemens, duped you into believing her eight-month-old son Major is yours, but you are certain today’s DNA test will prove you are not the father. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

Judge Lake turned to the young woman holding a baby on her hip. “Shawna Miss Clemens, you say Mr. Bell’s accusations are false, and you’re certain the test will prove Major is his son. Is this correct?”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“So, Mr. Bell, what have you done for Miss Clemens and her son?”

Mr. Bell stood, his voice tight. “I’ve done everything, Your Honor. I moved from California to go be out there with her with the baby. I’ve bought diapers, car seats, strollers, boxes, everything. I’ve done everything I feel like a father should do.”

Shawna’s lawyer interjected. “Of course he’s the father. Why shouldn’t you do it? Why shouldn’t you?”

Bell shot back. “Insofar as a car note, he did that on his own. I didn’t ask him to pay my car. He did it on his own.”

Judge Lake raised a hand. “So she couldn’t work. She was on maternity leave. So you were doing everything you felt you should do as a father.”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“So why do you feel she duped you?”

Bell’s face tightened. “Because look what the baby looked like. The baby looks white. Your Honor, I’m expecting a chocolate baby, and this baby came out white.”

The audience murmured. Judge Lake leaned forward. “Come on now.”

Shawna shook her head. “My son’s life is not a game.”

“Every baby comes out light,” her lawyer said.

“No, they don’t,” Bell said. “Everybody knows that.”

“No, they don’t.”

Judge Lake held up a hand. “Wait a minute, Mr. Bell. Let me be clear. You’re saying the only reason you believe Miss Clemens duped you is because the child didn’t come out the shade you thought it should?”

“Yeah. And there’s a white guy involved. That’s why.”

“So far as the white guy,” Shawna said quickly, “we had nothing physical. Nothing. He texted me. We actually met the day before that, and he wanted me to do his hair. It was never nothing physical.”

“So the white guy wanted you to do his hair?”

“Yes. He wants braids. He has braids in his hair.”

Judge Lake glanced at her bailiff. “I actually have seen that before. So he wanted to get his hair braided. I’m from Compton, so it’s not too—”

“You’re saying you’ve never heard of such?” Judge Lake asked Bell. “Jerome, have you ever had braids?”

Jerome nodded. “Only when I was a teenager.”

“So see, we’ve heard of it.” Judge Lake turned back to Bell. “You’re saying there was this relationship with a gentleman that was white, and you’ve witnessed him texting Miss Clemens. She said it’s because he wanted to get his hair braided. Are you asserting in this courtroom today that you believe he’s the father of this child?”

“Yes, Shawna. It’s just so much. And I’m not a jealous dude, but she’s telling me dudes is turning her down. She turns down dudes on Facebook all the time.”

Shawna crossed her arms. “I’m always turning down dudes. Telling them, ‘I’m with you.’”

“Then two, three guys calling her phone. I’m not the type of dude to say, ‘Let me see your phone.’”

Shawna’s voice rose. “Listen, I do hair for a living. People call my phone. People text my phone. I’m honest with Mr. Bell. I’m very honest. You don’t have no life, so this shouldn’t be a problem.”

“You got dudes texting my phone, calling my phone.”

“He’s right there sitting right next to me,” Shawna said. “If he believes that he’s the father, why come to me kissing my stomach? Telling my family members, telling his family members that I’m pregnant? He was excited. I don’t know. I don’t get it. I don’t understand.”

Bell shrugged. “Because it’s a chance that I was the father. We were messing around, but we weren’t in no relationship.”

Judge Lake’s voice sharpened. “So wait a minute. Are we saying here today—and I want to be clear about your testimony—that your doubt didn’t start until the baby was born?”

“Yeah. Once I seen the baby.”

“During the pregnancy, you were thinking you were having a baby?”

“Yes.”

“So tell me what happened the day Major was born.”

Bell’s voice dropped. “The day Major was born, I’m excited. Me and her at the hospital. She’s gonna go into birth. The doctors are there. She’s squeezing my hand. The doctors are like, ‘Push, push, push.’ I see the little afro come out. I’m all like, ‘Oh man, here he come.’ I’m getting excited. I’m like, ‘Push, baby, push.’ She pushing. He come out like this.”

He gestured, his hands framing a shape. “And I just was all like—I don’t know how I was looking.”

“What do you mean, he comes out like this?”

“I seen the afro, so I’m thinking a little chocolate drop’s gonna come out. And I guess I must have had a crazy look on my face or something, because she’s like, ‘What’s wrong with the baby? What’s wrong? Is he okay?’ And I’m like, ‘Man, this baby white.’ And I just sat down. All the doctors looked at me all crazy. They was trying to convince me babies come out light.”

“So in that moment, you’re thinking this baby is white, and you’re thinking about this gentleman that’s white that’s always texting her.”

“Yeah. You put two and two together in the hospital room. In the delivery room.”

Shawna’s lawyer shook his head. “Well, let’s be honest. The baby had three different last names so far.”

Shawna explained. “It was my family last name, my family has two last names. I was gonna give him his last name—my last name, my family’s name, and then his name. All the boys in my family have the same last name, two last names. That’s why it wasn’t no other man’s last name. It wasn’t the white guy’s last name. It was mine.”

Bell scoffed. “My son’s gonna be on the birth certificate. Nobody else is.”

Judge Lake turned to Shawna. “Miss Clemens, does Mr. Bell have any reason to doubt paternity?”

Shawna shook her head firmly. “He has no reason. He says it’s because of what he went through, which is fine, but he has no other reason to doubt. He knows that I wasn’t in a relationship with another guy. He knows we were together.”

“She’s had dudes calling from the beginning of the relationship,” Bell countered. “The only way I end up finding out about it is because she gets upset and then tells me. ‘I turn down dudes for this and this and this.’ It’s just so much.”

Judge Lake pointed to the exhibit board. “What did you bring to show me?”

Bell stepped to the board. “Okay, Donna. This is me, as you can see. I’m dark-skinned. Not super dark, but I’m a dark-skinned fella. And this is Miss Clemens, and you see she’s like a cinnamon brown. So I did a baby morph. Put these together to see what the baby would look like with it being us. And this is what I got. And this is my son. A white boy with an afro. From doing my morph, I feel the baby should have way more color than that. And he’s eight months and still hasn’t got it.”

Shawna shook her head. “He has all Mr. Bell’s features. His lips, his nose, his eyes. He looks just like him.”

Judge Lake nodded. “But Mr. Bell, you do have to know that children come in all shapes and sizes and colors and shades. It’s just a reality. They don’t always reflect the complexion of both parents. You do know that, right?”

“Yeah, but when you got dudes on Facebook and dudes calling your phone—she does hair, which is fine. But when she goes to do hair, she lets me know. And she ain’t never told me, ‘Oh, I’m going to braid the white boy’s hair.’ But he’s still calling. It’s other people that are still calling, but they’re not getting their hair done. So what are they still calling for? Is that some type of code?”

Shawna threw her hands up. “I have no reason to lie. Mr. Bell knows everything. We don’t have any lies. I don’t know why he’s sitting here putting on a show. I do hair for a living. That’s how I make my money.”

She took a breath. “I remember the day that I know he was conceived. It was my birthday. We were at a family member’s house, drinking, having fun. And he was conceived.”

“You knew you were pregnant already from that night?”

“No. It was actually four weeks after.”

Bell nodded. “And what she told me—she was in my stomach, one way or another. Calling his family members, telling them, ‘Oh, she’s pregnant.’ He was happy. He don’t have any kids. He was very happy, excited. ‘Let’s be a family. I want to be here. I’ve been here.’ But if he’s not mine, I’m walking back to California.”

Shawna pulled out a document. “Can I present you with this?”

Judge Lake took it. “What is that, Miss Clemens?”

“It’s his birth certificate. Mr. Bell actually signed the birth certificate. I left California to fly to Kansas City, leaving my son that was supposedly white, and he still signed the birth certificate. We actually argued in the hospital because he told me if I didn’t give my son his last name, he wasn’t going to sign it. And I thought I could remove my name from the birth certificate.”

Bell nodded. “I’m upset because he’s still denying my son.”

“Well, in some states, you do have a period of time when you can change your mind if you acknowledge paternity and you feel like that was an error. You have a small window of time.”

“And we argued about it. I got to the point where I was like, ‘Okay, I’m not signing it.’ My baby, if this is my son, he’s gonna have my last name. He has my last name because I signed it. If I wouldn’t have signed it, he wouldn’t have my name.”

Judge Lake asked, “How close are you to the child? Do you hold him? Do you play with him? Do you help raise him?”

“Yeah. I change diapers. I do all that. I don’t treat him like he’s not mine.”

Bell’s voice cracked. “I’m 32. I ain’t had no mom or dad at all. I’m a system baby. I grew up in the system, group homes, a few foster homes. I got released when I was 18. I was always looking out for me. I didn’t mind if I got in trouble. I always told myself I would change my life when I asked somebody else to care about, which would be a child. And when he came and she told me she was pregnant, I’m done running the streets, doing fast money. I’m done.”

He wiped his eyes. “I left. I flew out there. When she found out she was pregnant, she wanted to go back home. I sent her back home. Once the baby came, I left everything and went out there. I haven’t been home in almost a year. None of my family members or friends—I’ve been in this child’s life.”

Shawna’s voice shook. “Just a couple days ago, he actually told my son, ‘You don’t have a father.’”

The audience gasped.

Bell shook his head. “He told my son—my son at eight months, he was saying ‘Dada.’ His first words were ‘Daddy.’ Still to this day, that’s the only word he says. That’s how much he’s around the father.”

“So when my son kept saying ‘Daddy, Daddy,’ she was ignoring him. He was ignoring him. So I said, just trying to quiet him down, ‘Don’t say it.’ He said, ‘You don’t have a father.’ That hurt me. This is my child. This is his whole life we’re talking about. Why do that to him?”

Shawna’s eyes filled. “It hurts. It really hurts.”

Judge Lake looked at her. “Is it bothering you that he doubts you, or is it bothering you that you feel like your child is suffering because of this?”

“It’s definitely both. I never saw myself going through this. You see it on TV, you hear it, but I never saw myself going through this. This is supposed to be a man that I’m in love with, the father of my child. You’re supposed to be there for me. I don’t get that from Mr. Bell. And just hearing him say that to my child, all the feelings—everything is just cut off. You don’t say that to no child. That hurt me. It really hurt.”

Bell shook his head. “She’s playing victim. She’s trying to say cold things to me. ‘Don’t call him Daddy. Oh, you don’t want him to call me Daddy? Fine, he don’t got no dad then.’ What’s wrong with that? You trying to be cold to me? I promise you, I could be even colder.”

Judge Lake’s voice was sharp. “Why are you all doing this in front of the child?”

“This is what he does,” Shawna said. “Argue in front of the child.”

Judge Lake turned to Bell. “Mr. Bell, you’ve spoken so passionately about this child. I can really see how much you care about him. Are you saying that if this is not your biological child, you’re not even going to continue a relationship? You’re going to be able to walk away from Major?”

Bell nodded. “If he’s not mine, yes. I love him. I just don’t think—if he’s not mine, I’m not going to be there for him. I’m not going to raise nobody else’s child. I want my own family. I don’t have a family. I want my own. I deserve to have my own child.”

Judge Lake reached for the envelope. “All right. I think we need to figure out how to move forward, and in order to do that, we need the results. Jerome, there you go.”

The bailiff handed it over.

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

The audience applauded. Bell stared at the judge, his mouth open.

Shawna clutched her baby. “Thank you.”

“It took all of this,” Bell said. “It took all of this just to show you.”

“It took all of this,” Shawna whispered. “Right.”

“I’m sorry, Miss Clemens. I had to know.”

“I know. It hurts.”

Judge Lake looked between them. “So where are you all in this, then?”

Shawna wiped her eyes. “I want to be able to be a family now. I honestly do. I want my son to have both parents in his life.”

“How about you, Mr. Bell?”

Bell nodded slowly. “I want a family. Of course. I never had one. No mom, no dad, no aunties, no grandma.”

Judge Lake leaned forward. “This is such an incredible opportunity for you, young man. And I don’t want you to miss it. You have an opportunity to break a cycle for this baby. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Shawna.”

“Can you explain to Miss Clemens what that means to you? To break this cycle for your little boy? Together.”

Bell looked at Shawna. “I just don’t want Major to go through what I went through.”

Shawna nodded. “As long as he won’t, we can just move forward from here. Right?”

Bell nodded. “Right.”

The courtroom settled as the bailiff called the next case.

“Miss McDowell, you say you have no doubt that your one-month-old daughter Annabelle is your husband’s biological child because you claim you only had sex with Mr. McDowell during the window of conception. Yes, Your Honor.”

Judge Lake turned to the man across the aisle. “Mr. McDowell, you say your wife is nothing but a cheater, and you believe that the man she left you for, Mr. Alfred, is in fact Annabelle’s father. You say that once the DNA results prove the child is not yours, you want out of this marriage. Yes, Your Honor.”

Mr. McDowell nodded. “Yes, Your Honor.”

“So, Mr. McDowell, how has this situation affected you and your family?”

He exhaled. “Well, the children we have have lost their mother. I’m a single father at the moment. I’m taking care of them by myself. It all went down like she just one day told me she was going to go to her friend’s house, a female friend’s house, and spend a few hours. That wasn’t true. She called me later that night and said she was going to end up spending the night. Well, the next day, the female friend she went to go spend the night with called me and said she walked into the home and caught her and her boyfriend on the couch cuddling.”

Miss McDowell shook her head. “That’s a lie. Whenever I brought it to Miss McDowell’s attention that I knew about it, she said, ‘That’s what friends do.’”

“You’re married,” Judge Lake said. “You don’t sleep in a bed with another man.”

Miss McDowell nodded. “But me, him, and the friend that I was gonna stay the night with were drinking that night. We went to the store, and on our way back, he told me that I could sleep with this dude in front of him and watch me mess around with this dude. I told him no. I’m your wife, and that’s not right.”

“You suggested that, Mr. McDowell?”

“I do not recall that.”

“We were all drinking,” Miss McDowell said. “And that was before the fact of her going up there and spending three days. To me, that sends up a red flag.”

“So I told him I needed time away,” Miss McDowell continued. “A week at least, to think about what I needed to do. Within that time, they slept together. I stayed in the relationship.”

“So his request rubbed you the wrong way, and you said you needed time away to think.”

“Yes.”

“And then what happened?”

“Well, I went out to my friend’s house. He was my friend, and the chick was my friend. I did not know she was planning on leaving that night. I ended up asking to stay the night.”

“But you ended up in the bed with this guy.”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“At some point in this marriage, no matter how messy, how difficult it has been, you end up pregnant. And you tell your husband.”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“And what was his response?”

“It’s not mine.”

Mr. McDowell shook his head. “I said I told him that it has to be his because me and him had sex on October 27th when we were heading to go get our other kids.”

Mr. McDowell scoffed. “I do not recall that. He’s a liar, Your Honor. And since then, she jumped from boyfriend to boyfriend, co-worker to co-worker. She was with like five—it was six different guys.”

Miss McDowell shook her head. “No, Your Honor. I was with four different guys. And I have proof here that yes, we had sex on the 27th, and also I had sex with Mr. Alfred on the 9th and the 10th of November. And I also have proof from what my midwife told me that my conceiving week was, and that’s the week I had sex with Mr. McDowell on the back road.”

She handed up her evidence. Judge Lake studied the calendar. “This first page shows on October 27th you were intimate with your husband. And then on November 9th and 10th, you were intimate with the other man in question, Mr. Alfred. And here you have where it shows the week of you conceiving your child. On this calendar, you say your midwife gave you a date of conception, a window. She said that was the week of October 26th, which means the 27th is when you slept with your husband. So you figured it was his child.”

“Yes, Your Honor, because there was no one else you slept with for at least two weeks.”

Mr. McDowell shook his head. “The baby was mine because I slept with her—allegedly slept with her—a week before the next guy did. Because you’re saying you don’t even remember. I will admit I allowed her to perform oral activities on me, but we did not physically do anything that could acquire a baby.”

Judge Lake raised an eyebrow. “I believe she’s not your—in her mind, to get money from my family, because my mother supported her through our last three pregnancies. And she believed that if she had my mother fooled to believe that it was my kid, that she could get whatever she wanted. Food, money, clothing. I told my mother not to help her, and she did it behind my back anyway.”

“Your mother’s here,” Judge Lake said. “I’d like to hear from her. Please stand, ma’am. Thank you for being here. Miss Combs, you’ve been here in this courtroom once before, am I correct?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And you were here with your nephew. Now you’re here with your son.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“He just said that during the pregnancy, you took Miss McDowell in. Is that true?”

“Yes, ma’am, I did.”

“Please explain.”

“Well, it’s not my grandchild first of all.”

“You don’t believe it’s your grandchild?”

Miss Combs nodded. “We had a court scheduled in our town. I was walking down the hallway. I was running late for court. She did not know where I was coming from. I tucked myself behind the corner where no one could see me, and I overheard her telling somebody—and laughing—that she knew the child wasn’t mine and that she was just playing us for the money.”

Miss McDowell shook her head. “No, Your Honor, that is not true. I said that I didn’t. It’s him. He confirmed it. He asked me, ‘Is it Mr. McDowell’s child?’”

Miss Combs’s voice rose. “Let’s be respectful. He asked me, ‘I thought it was Mr. McDowell’s child. I saw Tom, Dick, and Harry and then just blame one person as the daddy.’ The reason why she’s saying it’s his—her and her mother are nothing but trash.”

Judge Lake held up a hand. “What I want to know is, if you didn’t believe the child was your grandchild, why did you take her in?”

“Because she told me from day one that it was his, like she’s saying now. I believed her as a grandmother.”

“So at first you believed.”

“Yes, ma’am. She called me wanting food. She called me wanting money. I’ve done her and her boyfriend’s laundry. I’ve told her repeatedly not to do it, and she did it behind my back. I even gave her her own money to come and do stuff at my house just to earn money.”

“You knew it was her boyfriend, or you found out later?”

“No, I knew it was her boyfriend. I tried to work it to where they could get back together because my thought—even though she’s—I’m sorry, do not use that language—but to me, they had three children together, and she should not be on the street. She should be a mother to these children because it’s not their fault they didn’t ask to be born. I let her stay with me and paid everything she needed, got her stuff, so she could work things out between her and him. And she kept going right back to the same boy over and over.”

Miss McDowell shook her head. “She honestly believed the child was mine. Then why did she refuse my and my family’s appearance at the hospital during birth? I have not laid eyes on that baby personally since it’s been born.”

Miss McDowell’s voice cracked. “I did not refuse him.”

“Then why haven’t you seen the baby?” Judge Lake asked.

“I don’t think it looks like—I didn’t ignore the other three kids we have. All three came out looking identical. There’s no comparison at all. This is not my kid, Your Honor.”

Miss McDowell wiped her eyes. “I did not refuse them to come up to the hospital. I told them I did not want no drama at the hospital. I told them, ‘If it comes down to it, I will have you removed.’”

Judge Lake turned to Mr. McDowell. “Now, keep talking about this boyfriend. You want an honest relationship. This is Mr. Alfred.”

Miss McDowell nodded. “Yes. November the 9th, I sat there and messaged him on Facebook, seeing if I could come over and chill with him and hang out. And yes, we ended up having sex that night. The first night. While you’re married, yes, wrong. He asked me to come back the next day, and I told him I would. Well, we ended up getting together that next day, which is November the 10th, and we had sex that day too.”

“And now you’re boyfriend and girlfriend?”

“Probably. During the marriage too. Because after they got—no matter what, she came over and was performing oral on me. She was sneaking behind his back and coming and seeing me at my mother’s.”

Miss McDowell shook her head. “You’re a liar.”

“Who was at the birth?” Judge Lake asked.

Mr. McDowell shook his head. “Not me.”

“Mr. Alfred was at the birth,” Miss McDowell said. “He supported me while I was pregnant, thinking that it is Michael’s child. And I still think it’s Michael’s child.”

“So Mr. Alfred supported you and went to the birth and witnessed the birth of this child, but knowing that it was Mr. McDowell’s job?”

Miss McDowell nodded. “Yes.”

Judge Lake turned to the bailiff. “Jerome, I think it’s time we meet Mr. Alfred. She’s playing games. He’s scored in the courtroom. This is just a mess. Honestly, Alfred probably is not the father neither. There’s no telling who it is.”

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

“Thank you for joining us, Mr. Alfred. I have to ask you. Do you believe you’re baby Annabelle’s biological father?”

Mr. Alfred shook his head. “Personally, I don’t believe me or Michael is the father. I think it might be the gentleman before she was trying to work things out with Michael.”

Judge Lake blinked. “What’s interesting here is you say the baby’s your husband’s. Your husband says the baby’s your lover’s. And your lover says the baby’s by another.”

Miss McDowell nodded. “Explain the reason why he thinks it’s by another person is because the dude I was with before October.”

“One of the multiple other guys you were with, Miss McDowell. Respectfully, how many men were you sleeping with?”

Miss McDowell took a breath. “I was with four dudes. Four dudes all together. That’s including Mr. Alfred and Mr. McDowell.”

Judge Lake turned to Mr. McDowell. “I also had found messaging from Facebook from another gentleman to Mr. Speaker asking about her pregnancy and the child. To me, that seems kind of fishy. Why would he be asking unless he thought he might be the father as well?”

“So she said you were at the birth, yes, ma’am. Did you sign the birth certificate?”

Mr. Alfred nodded. “Yes, you remember.”

“So you were married to Mr. McDowell, but Mr. Alfred, you were there at the birth, and you signed the birth certificate.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“You just said, ‘That sounds good to me, I’m signing up.’ Considering he was there for the whole nine months, so you didn’t believe you were the child’s biological father, but you were happy to be the child’s legal father. You wanted to acknowledge paternity.”

Mr. Alfred shrugged. “We already have three kids. The three children that they had together. Now he likes to hold over her head, refuses her visits, stuff. She refuses to come and see him. Every time Mr. Alfred kicks her out because of an argument, she comes running straight to my doorstep.”

Miss McDowell shook her head. “I have not done it here recently, no. Not since the baby, yes. I have whenever we’ve been into it and he’s put me out. Every time I have run to my mother-in-law because I was pregnant, and yes, like I said, it’s Mr. McDowell’s baby. So yes, I’m going to run to my mother-in-law for support. If I needed anything, I could depend on her for anything.”

Judge Lake nodded slowly. “So the only reason she claims it’s my kid is so she can get that kind of support. I mean, once she became three months pregnant, I was informed she was pregnant. She dropped all visits with the current kids we have. She has not visited or anything for about—”

Miss McDowell shook her head. “Liar.”

“And what’s interesting is, Miss McDowell, you’re saying the baby’s your husband’s, but you’re in a relationship with Mr. Alfred.”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“And he signed the birth certificate, and he supported you through the birth, but you still believe this is Mr. McDowell’s child.”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

Mr. Alfred shook his head. “She believes it’s mine, then why would she have somebody else sign the certificate?”

“Because he supported me through the whole nine months, and he was there at her birth.”

Mr. Alfred’s voice was measured. “From my knowledge, with her prior three kids, she believed that it was Mr. McDowell’s up until the sixth month when she tried to claim that it was mine. I’m a person who believes in facts. She just was trying to see who would take her in and who would give her the most money and feed her better. But like I said, I don’t believe the baby’s mine. I hope the results are different, because like I said, we are in a relationship together.”

“So you want the child to be yours, but you don’t believe the child is yours?”

Mr. Alfred nodded. “Yes.”

Judge Lake turned to Miss McDowell. “I’m looking at you now, Miss McDowell, and it seems like you’re getting emotional. What are you feeling?”

Miss McDowell wiped her eyes. “I’m upset that my boyfriend don’t believe me. And I’m upset that everything that’s going on. And truthfully, I hope that that baby is Mr. Alfred’s. Because he supported me through everything. Even whenever I was depressed, he’s been there.”

Mr. Alfred’s voice softened. “I love this girl with all my heart, and that’s the reason why I supported her through the whole nine months. I’ve had no relationship with my own father, so I don’t want her to go through it. I don’t even know who my father is, and I don’t want her to have to go through the same thing. I’d rather her know who her father is and have a father and be there for her. I’d rather her be supported by a father. She needs a man in her life.”

Judge Lake reached for the envelope. “All right. Jerome, I’m ready for the results.”

The bailiff handed it over.

“These results were prepared by DNA Diagnostics and they read as follows. In the case of McDowell versus McDowell, when it comes to one-month-old Annabelle Alford, as to whether Mr. McDowell or Mr. Alfred is the biological father—Mr. Alfred, you are her father.”

Mr. Alfred exhaled. “Thank God.”

The audience applauded. Miss McDowell buried her face in her hands.

“How does it feel, Mr. Alfred?”

He smiled. “It feels great. It feels amazing. My mother was right the whole time. I just—given so many different people that she had been with within the timelines, the reason why I had doubts—”

Judge Lake turned to Mr. McDowell. “That was the answer you wanted, yes?”

Mr. McDowell nodded. “Yes, Your Honor, it is. Just so I won’t have to deal with him with another kid, and then I’ll be able to always be around her.”

“And it seemed that this was the answer you wanted as well, yes?”

Mr. McDowell nodded. “Yes, Your Honor, it is. I’m relieved.”

“But you still have other children together.”

“Yes, we do.”

“And I’m hoping that this truth, this clarity, will help relieve some of the doubt, some of the anxiety, some of the negative energy, so that maybe you all can at least begin to co-parent the other three children. Are you all legally divorced yet?”

“Not yet. But it’s coming soon after this. There’s no doubt the divorce is going through. I’m through with this. I can’t wait. I’m ready to get my last name back.”

The bailiff called the final case.

“Mr. Connor, you say a one-time fling with the defendant turned into more than fifteen years of child support payments and even jail time for a child you have never believed is yours. You need today’s results to prove you are not her child’s father.”

Mr. Connor stood. “Yes, Your Honor.”

“Ms. Wallace, you and your husband claim the plaintiff knows he is your son’s biological father and want him to pay what he owes when the results prove it today. Mr. Wallace, you say you trust your mother but acknowledge Mr. Connor’s recent actions have given you doubt.”

Judge Lake turned back to Connor. “Mr. Connor, explain to the court why today’s results are so important.”

Connor’s voice was tight. “Today’s results are so important because I need to undo a terrible injustice that’s been inflicted upon me and my family. It’s caused a lot of problems financially. There are times when I can’t afford things. I’ve even been to jail. November 5th, 2005, until January 2006, for failure to pay child support. There was no home for me to go to. I lost my car. I lost my job. I was 36 years old. I had to start all over. It’s making my character look real bad, Your Honor. And I know for a fact that she knows he’s not my son.”

“Two and a half months in jail for child support arrears?”

“Yes. I still owe six hundred and ten dollars. They’re taking seventy dollars a week. I’m broke.”

Ms. Wallace shook her head. “He just wants off child support. For one, it was more than just a one-night fling. Jeffrey isn’t my child, and I have you on Facebook.”

Judge Lake held up a hand. “Quit pointing your fingers. I’m an adult.”

Ms. Wallace’s voice rose. “What kind of adult? Your Honor, I raised my three kids by myself. You do not know what I had to struggle and go through because I know he’s not—it’s not my problem what me and my kids have to go through. My son Jeffrey, he holds his shoes going to school. That’s his dad. His mama had to—”

Connor shook his head. “That’s his dad?”

“Yes. Who is his father, then? You know? You said you know that’s not me. You said it’s Wallace, not me.”

Judge Lake turned to the young man sitting quietly. “Tell the court. You say your son had to grow up without Jeffrey. Ask him. He went to school. When he held his shoes—”

Ms. Wallace turned to Jeffrey. “Why was you telling him for years his father was well? Jeffrey, have I ever told you that another man was your father?”

Judge Lake raised her hand. “Let’s pause. I want to go back a little bit and understand. Mr. Connor, you say the relationship with Miss Wallace was a one-night stand. Can you tell me about that? Do you remember this relationship encounter?”

Connor nodded. “I met her through a family member. We all used to hang out a little bit, here and there. In the fall, we came together one time. Upon penetration, she changed her mind, and that was that. I never knew anything about Jeffrey. She had a friend who told me, ‘Oh, did you sleep with Wanda?’ I said, ‘No, not really.’ I told her what happened. There was penetration. I told her the story. And she said, ‘Well, I just wanted to tell you she was pregnant already.’”

“So the encounter was short. But then at some point, Miss Wallace changed her mind. She said she didn’t want to do it, and you said no, and you never completed the act. It never lasted more than one night. You never had sex again.”

Connor nodded. “That’s correct.”

Ms. Wallace shook her head. “That’s not true either.”

“What do you remember, Miss Wallace?”

“I remember him and I being in a whole year relationship, and we had sex numerous times, Your Honor. And he did know. When I found out I was pregnant, I got sick. My mom took me to my doctor’s appointment, and that’s when I found out I was two months pregnant. And I called you and told you.”

Connor shook his head. “We had pagers back then.”

“Shut your mouth,” Ms. Wallace snapped.

Judge Lake held up her hand. “Okay, Mr. Connor, I’m gonna give you a chance to respond. I promise I will. Miss Wallace, I want you to speak, and I want to hear what you’re saying.”

Ms. Wallace nodded. “I called him, and we spoke over the phone. We used to have, as he called it, phone sex. We would talk over the phone all the time. And yes, when Jeffrey was born, I did take our son over to his father’s house. And when the stuff hit the fan is when I popped over his house, there was another female there, and his sister told me that he was upstairs with another woman.”

Judge Lake held up a hand. “Miss Wallace is saying you all were intimate for a year, and when she found out she was pregnant, she called you. Do you remember being told she was pregnant?”

Connor shook his head. “Only by the friend. And I blew that off because the penetration act, she intentionally did that. That’s a crime. What she did, she knew. And why would she intentionally trap you? At the time, I was doing pretty good. I had a little BMW. We were young. All of a sudden, here comes child support. I think maybe she thought I had a little money as well.”

Judge Lake turned to Ms. Wallace. “You say you saw Jeffrey when he was three or four months old. She brought him over. Both of you at least agree on that. I want to know when’s the next time you saw him.”

Connor nodded. “I saw him when he was five. He came to my mother’s funeral repast.”

“You agree to that, Miss Wallace?”

“Yes, ma’am, that happened.”

“And during the time from three to four months to five years old, did you all ever have conversations about Jeffrey at all?”

Ms. Wallace nodded. “Yes. He wanted to be in his son’s life. I told him I did not want to be in a relationship with him.”

Connor shook his head. “You’re a professional liar. I’m not going to disrespect you because I’m a woman that’s not disrespectful—you committed—”

Judge Lake cut him off. “This man wanted to be with me, and I did not want to be with him.”

“But did you discuss Jeffrey and whether or not you were going to raise him? Child support?”

Ms. Wallace nodded. “He wanted me to be with him in order to be in Jeffrey’s life. I should not have to be in a relationship with a man in order for him to even help with his child. The courts told him and gave him a date. He never showed up.”

Connor shook his head. “He never showed up. I understand how that happens. It’s called a default judgment. If the father doesn’t show up to court, yes, he will be named the father by default and required to pay court-ordered child support regardless. You’re here now. You’ve suffered all the consequences of that. And I honestly say to myself, Mr. Connor, he must really believe he’s not this young man’s biological father, because the truth is, they’ve put you on record as the legal father. That’s why you’re responsible for support. And I can’t really understand that except for the fact that you truly believe you are not his biological father.”

Judge Lake turned to the young man in the audience. “Jeffrey, I know this testimony has been difficult. I thank you for being patient. Can you tell me when was the first time you heard about or met Mr. Connor?”

Jeffrey stood, his voice steady but soft. “The first time that I recall meeting was when I was like ten years old. I remember my mom and some other family members were riding around East St. Louis, and we decided to stop during the drive at a liquor store. And one of my family members said, ‘Hey, that’s your dad.’ So when I see this man and they just casually say this is your dad—does he say hello to you? Yeah, he said hey. But it wasn’t like a conversation further than that, because I just hurried up and got back in the back seat. I’m like, ‘I don’t have a dad.’ So how can any member of my family just say, ‘Hey, that’s your dad’? Because prior to then, no one really spoke to me like, ‘Hey, this is your dad.’ So prior to that particular point, I never really thought like, ‘Hey, who’s my dad?’ There was an adult for me. But after the liquor store incident, that’s when I started wondering.”

He took a breath. “I ended up asking my mom a lot of questions. I guess she was like, ‘Hey, it’s time for you to actually hang out with us, with your family.’ So that summer, after church, we went over there. But when I was there, I spent more time with his sister and my cousins.”

Judge Lake turned to Connor. “Mr. Connor, do you remember this time when Jeffrey came to visit your family?”

Connor nodded slowly. “Yeah, I do, kind of. I came over there, and he was already there. And my wife asked me who he was.”

Judge Lake turned to the gallery. “I’d like to hear from your wife. Ma’am, please stand and step over to the podium. Thank you so much for joining us today. I’d like to know what you know about this situation.”

Connor’s wife, Trina, stepped forward. “When Jeffrey was ten, we came home one day to the house, and he was sitting on the couch. I just asked my husband, ‘You know who that is?’ And he said, ‘That’s Jeffrey.’ I already knew the situation. He had already told me that basically they wanted to put a baby on him. He attempted to have sex with her.”

“And at this point, when Jeffrey was ten, was your husband paying child support for Jeffrey?”

Trina nodded. “Yes, he was paying child support for Jeffrey already.”

“And you didn’t see Jeffrey again until he was I want to say maybe fifteen or so. He stopped by the house one day.”

Trina nodded. “And you didn’t make any effort to stay in contact with him?”

“Oh, I did. I reached out to him on social media, because he wrote a big paragraph on Facebook saying, ‘Where’s my dad? And why was I never part of your family?’ So I called. I asked Jeffrey for his number, and I had my husband call him. And my husband told him, ‘You know, I’m not your dad. That’s why you didn’t spend time with the family.’”

Judge Lake turned to Jeffrey. “Do you remember writing that?”

Jeffrey nodded. “I do. There was this particular scene from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air when Will is having a conversation with his dad, and his dad is trying to leave and basically not be a part of his life anymore. It really hit home for me. I decided to express myself on Facebook. And then, as Miss Trina said, she did reach out to me, and they both told me at that point that it’s a possibility of me being his child. And that’s the first time I ever heard that. It was kind of just earth-shattering at that point for me. And then when I hear them say, ‘Hey, I may not be his child,’ it got me thinking like, ‘Darn, my presence on this Earth just made a negative impact on someone else’s life.’”

Ms. Wallace wiped her eyes. “Does your mother love you with all her heart? You know that. You’re my twin, and I showed love forever since the day that I had you. You are my world, and I played the mother and father role because I knew what he was doing. He was denying you. So I made it the best I could.”

Judge Lake nodded. “It’s been a while, one household parent. And I need you to allow Jeffrey to speak. Because it’s about him. And he does deserve the opportunity to say what he feels. You shouldn’t have to post it on Facebook. He should be able to say it face to face to Mr. Connor and to you, to everyone. It’s his truth.”

Ms. Wallace nodded. “Yes, Your Honor.”

“I love my son with all my heart.”

“That’s your son.”

“I love him with all my heart.”

Judge Lake held up a hand. “No, no, no. Mr. Connor, this is a moment that I need you to understand. I brought up your son, and then you brought up Mr. Connor. I brought up your son, you brought up Mr. Connor. I brought up your son. It goes back to you. I love him. We know that. But what I’m saying is, in this moment, this is just about him. Because as much as you love him, that doesn’t change the fact that when he watched that Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode, he did not write about why he didn’t have a mama. He had one. He wrote about why he didn’t have a father.”

She reached for the envelope. “I think we need to get the results. Jerome.”

The bailiff handed it over.

“These results were prepared by DNA Diagnostics and they read as follows. In the case of Connor versus Wallace, when it comes to twenty-four-year-old Jeffrey Wallace, it has been determined by this court that Mr. Connor, you are not the father.”

Connor exhaled. “I already knew. She committed a crime. She set me up. I knew this all the time.”

Judge Lake turned to Jeffrey. “Jeffrey, are you all right, honey?”

Jeffrey shook his head. “Not really.”

“More so because my mom was very, very, very adamant that Joe was the dad, so that made me more adamant as well.”

He looked at Connor. “I just want to apologize. First, I know it’s nothing that I did.”

Connor shook his head. “You don’t have to. You’re a great person. Thank you. Very great person. And I would have loved you to have been my son. But I just knew. At this point, before this whole incident, I never even knew that there was another possibility.”

The courtroom fell silent. Jeffrey stood alone, surrounded by the weight of twenty-four years of not knowing, finally holding a truth that cut both ways—sharp enough to sever, but clean enough to finally heal.