Chapter 10 - THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE IS REAL
The birth certificate was authentic.
Sophie was born in Spokane.
Mother:
Kara Elizabeth Bennett.
Age twenty.
Father:
Dennis Edward Stanley.
Age thirty-six.
Acknowledgment of paternity signed by Dennis.
Witnessed.
No DNA test at birth.
Legal paternity established.
Trisha had been married to Dennis for four years at the time.
Kara was her adult daughter.
I read the document in my attorney’s office.
Then went outside and vomited.
Not because I knew whether the relationship was consensual.
I did not.
Because Dennis had spent years in a parental role toward Kara before she became an adult.
Power does not disappear on an eighteenth birthday.
I remembered Christmas photographs.
Dennis near the fireplace.
Kara on the stairs.
I began searching every memory for evidence.
Dr. Melissa Grant later warned me:
“You cannot reverse-engineer certainty from photographs.”
May you like
She was right.
The truth needed Kara.
