A man is accused of fathering a baby abandoned on his doorstep, costing him his marriage and his way of life.
Kyle Greenbecker had spent a year working on an oil pipeline in Alaska, but finally, he was coming home to his beautiful wife. He and Lisa had met in high school, and Kyle had never regretted marrying her at nineteen.
Maybe it was old-fashioned, but Kyle was proud that Lisa was the only woman he had ever been intimate with in his life. He didn’t need or want anyone else. It would never have occurred to him that Lisa might ever doubt him—and with good reason.
When his plane landed, Kyle collected his luggage and went out with the other passengers, scanning the crowd for Lisa’s beloved face, but she wasn’t there to look for him.
Probably, Kyle thought, she had been delayed at work because of an emergency. He sent her a quick text to say he was heading home, but didn’t hear back. He took an Uber and, an hour later, he was walking to her front door.
The lights were on in the living room, but Lisa wasn’t there. He walked toward the kitchen and stopped in the doorway, stunned. On the kitchen table was a crib, and Kyle could see a small arm waving in the air.
He walked over. There was a crib with a baby in it on his kitchen table! The child was looking at him with that surprised look that babies have, and Kyle looked back at him just as surprised.
Then he saw a folded paper on the table next to the crib. He picked it up and unfolded it. Inside was another sheet with a message written in a handwriting he didn’t recognize: “You had fun, now take responsibility for your child.”
Meanwhile, the note addressed to him in Lisa’s elegant handwriting read:
“Kyle, yesterday I found that kid on our doorstep with that note attached. I always suspected you cheated on me while you were away on business, but I never held it against you—after all, I had my fair share of affairs while you were gone—but taking on someone else’s bastard is too much. I’ve filed for divorce, and I sincerely hope I never see you again.”
“PS And about the baby, don’t worry, I only left when I saw you coming up the aisle. Enjoy your life, Kyle, I plan on enjoying mine.”
Kyle sat up and rested his head in his hands. He couldn’t believe this was happening to him. This child wasn’t his, he had never cheated on Lisa, never! A soft quivering sound made him look up.
The baby waved his little hand in the air, so Kyle brought his own hand closer and, to his surprise, the child latched onto his index finger with incredible strength.
“Well, baby,” Kyle said. “I guess it’s just the two of us, and I don’t know what to do with you!”
The baby was gurgling and gurgling again, then he wrinkled his nose alarmingly and turned red. “Oh my God!” Kyle cried. “What’s going on?” A certain smell quickly gave him the answer.
Yep, it was diaper time. But was there even a diaper? On the floor next to the table was a large backpack with several snap pockets he had never seen before. Inside Kyle found a confusing array of objects and the diapers.
He quickly googled how to change a diaper and watched intently as a woman on YouTube demonstrated on a lifelike doll how to change a diaper.
Kyle began to follow her instructions, but things didn’t go so smoothly. The lifelike doll of a woman didn’t move her legs, nor did she dip her kicking heels into the foul, nondescript contents of the dirty diaper! After cleaning the baby, Kyle realized it was a girl, and he didn’t know anything about girls!
“I won’t give you dating advice,” he told her solemnly. “But I can teach you how to ride a bike.”
Kyle realized at that moment that he intended to keep this baby.
He picked up the freshly changed baby and said, “You need me, and I guess I need you too. So what do you say, kiddo?”
Kyle consulted the YouTube baby guru again to prepare the milk and settled the baby in the crook of his arm to feed her.
“You need a name, you know that? How about… Celeste? Do you like that? Or Lily…”
If anyone had told Kyle that he would settle into fatherhood so easily and smoothly, he would never have believed them. Lily had her moments and her tantrums, but somehow, things worked out.
Kyle registered Lily as his daughter and enrolled her in daycare. To him, her birthday was the day he found her. But it was on her second birthday that Kyle’s world came crashing down.
A woman knocked on his door. “I’m here to get my baby,” she said. Kyle just looked at her. She was tall, blonde, and thin, with large breasts that were obviously the result of a plastic surgeon’s art.
“Your what?” Kyle asked.
“My baby,” she retorted. “I left her here two years ago? Sorry about that, but I was kind of high and my boyfriend lives two blocks away and I got mixed up. You know how it is!”
“Sorry, I don’t know what it’s like because I’ve never left a child on anyone’s doorstep,” Kyle said coldly. “I’d advise you to get out of here, or I’ll call the police.”
“Listen,” the woman said sternly. “I realized my mistake a week later when Burt didn’t return my calls, but now I need this baby!”
“You need her?” Kyle asked, furious. “What do you need her for?”
“Burt just got a major league contract,” the woman said. “And this baby is going to make sure some of those millions land in my bank account!”
Kyle sent the woman away, but he had a feeling he wasn’t done hearing from her. He was right. A week later, he was summoned to family court. A Miss Cherish Vegas was contesting his adoption of baby Lily.
Suddenly, Kyle was being inundated with subpoenas, social services visiting him at odd hours of the day and night, and his friends and colleagues were being questioned. Cherish really wanted to get her hands on those millions!
Finally, the day of the hearing arrived. Kyle nervously handed Lily over to the social worker for the duration of the hearing and walked in. Cherish was there, of course, and a tall man with Lily’s blue eyes stood on her side of the court. It could only be the famous Burt!
Cherish cried and sniffled, telling the judge how much she loved and missed her baby, and how her crazy college years (now gone and deeply missed) had led her to entrust Lily to Kyle.
The judge looked at the papers in front of her. “By her custody, you mean on her porch, don’t you, Miss Vegas?” the judge asked.
Cherish blushed. “Well, I’m still his mom! No one can deny that!” she shouted.
The judge looked at Burt. “You, sir, are you the father?”
Burt stood up and said, “I guess I am…”
The judge fixed him with a piercing gaze. “Are you ready and able to assume parental responsibilities for this child?”
Cherish shouted, “You bet he is, judge, he just signed a three million dollar contract to play baseball…”
“Oh!” cried the judge. “At last the truth is revealed! Tell me, Miss Vegas, what name did you give your daughter?”
“Name?” Cherish asked, confused. “Well, she’ll have her dad’s name, since he’ll be paying child support!”
Kyle stood. “Your Honor,” he said. “May I address the court?”
“Yes, Mr. Greenbecker,” the judge said. “Go ahead.”
“Madam, my daughter’s name is Lily, and she bears her father’s name well—mine. From the moment this child came into my life, I have loved her, and she loves me.”
At that moment, Lily, who was playing with the social worker’s collar, noticed Kyle standing. “Daddy!” she shouted, holding out her arms.
“Well, ladies and gentlemen, it appears to me that the case has been decided by the principal party,” the judge said. “I hereby vacate all claims to custody of the child Lily Greenbecker and confirm the custody and adoption by Kyle Greenbecker.”
That night, Kyle celebrated his victory in court, and he and Lily spent the evening catching fireflies in the backyard. “Stars!” Lily shouted. But to Kyle, the brightest star of all was his little girl.