Excerpt:

‘Imagine.’

Mike lay back in bed, eyes wide open, a silly grin on his face.

‘When Toby finds out I’m her father, it’ll be like a dream come true. Doesn’t every fatherless child daydream that their real Dad is rich and famous? How many kids actually have that come true? Now I can make it real. It’ll be magical.’

‘Even if she’s not really your daughter. Honey, we don’t know for certain. Why not wait for the results before assuming everything?’

Mike turned over, annoyed. ‘Come ON! You’ve met her. She’s like me but with a smaller chin and girl’s bits. I dated her Mum nine months before she was born, and we never used protection. And it just feels right – you can tell it, too, can’t you? She’s my kid.’

‘Drinking, smoking and doing drugs at thirteen? Getting in trouble at school? Yeah, that does sound like you. But …’

‘But what?’

‘We have our own family now. I’m not …’ Anna paused and looked down. Mike guessed what she was about to say. ‘Is that the kind of person we want to bring into our child’s life? I’m trying to keep Kai away from people like that, and you …’

‘She deserves a chance. I got left with a crazy dopehead father and a Mum who spent all day drunk. My daughter deserves better than that, and I don’t think she’s getting it now. I’ll sue for custody if I have to.’

‘Oh God. That’ll go well – “your honour, I know she’s my daughter thanks to the paternity test that I illegally obtained without her mother’s consent or even knowledge. I originally guessed she was mine because she holds her cigarettes just like me. I wanted her to be around less booze and drugs, so I took her on tour with a rock band.”’

Mike couldn’t help laughing at that, so rolled away to hide his face. ‘You seemed to like her.’ He grumbled into the pillowcase.

‘I do, Mike, but … well, let’s wait and see, anyway. She might not like the reality as much as you like the dream.’

Mike ignored that, and went back to his daydream of a future Toby at the Oscars giving her biggest thanks to the Dad she’d always dreamed of having.