Chapter 293: A Heartless Meanie

He'd caught himself, but too late. The damage was done.

"Pop-pop, are you saying James is our real daddy?" Theo had asked, his voice small but determined.

My father's face had gone pale with the realization of what he'd revealed.

"He lied to us," Harper had whispered, tears welling in her eyes. "Mommy lied too."

My father had immediately knelt down, taking their hands. "No, your mother loves you more than anything. She was trying to protect you. It's that man who can't be trusted."

Listening to their account, I wanted to scream. My father had no right to poison my children against James—especially not when they were finally getting to know their father.

"So you're not talking to James because you found out he's your real dad?" I asked, cupping their small faces in my hands. The revelation still left me reeling, but I needed to understand their sudden change of heart.

Harper nodded vigorously, her golden curls bouncing with the force of her conviction. "Super don't like him! And I'm going to cross him off my heart list three hundred times!"

Theo, not to be outdone by his sister's dramatic declaration, added solemnly, "I put all the robot dinosaurs he gave me in the 'time-out corner.'"

I tried to make sense of their logic. "But weren't you two just saying how great it would be if James became your dad? You practically climb him like a jungle gym every time he visits."

Theo gave me that look—the one that suggested adults were hopelessly clueless about the obvious. "That's because we thought he was just a nice person passing by. If we'd known from the beginning he was a liar daddy, I wouldn't have wanted his dinosaurs at all!"

"But whether he changed from a passing uncle to a dad, or was your dad all along, isn't the end result the same? He's still the same James who loves you."

Harper puffed her cheeks out indignantly, waving her hands for emphasis. "It! Is! Not! The! Same!" She made a swooping motion with her arm. "If he was just some nice uncle who suddenly decided to protect mommy and us, then he'd be a superhero!" She mimicked a billowing cape before her expression hardened. "But if he's actually our daddy," she scowled fiercely, "why did he hide for so long? Pop-pop says he's a heartless meanie!"

I sighed, trying a different approach. "Honey, your daddy and I separated because of a huge misunderstanding."

Harper narrowed her eyes suspiciously, looking like a tiny detective. "Mom, Pop-pop says you're too easily tricked. Like those princesses on TV who always believe the bad guys and end up trapped in towers. James is probably tricking you too!"

"It's not like that. James thought I was dead for years."

"He's faking!" Harper planted her hands on her hips. "He's a super rich CEO, right? He must have like a million detectives who could find people!"

"Your Uncle Nathan hid me very well, sweetie. He even changed my name."

Harper's face scrunched up as she deployed every dramatic term she'd gleaned from television. "Then he's just making excuses! If Prince Charming's princess disappeared, he would search the whole wide world! Don't be fooled, Mommy!" She nudged Theo with her elbow. "Right, brother?"

Theo nodded with grave seriousness. "James couldn't possibly have failed to find you unless he didn't want to look. We don't want that kind of daddy."

I fought back a wave of frustration. 

"Listen, babies," I tried again. "Sometimes grown-up problems are complicated. James and I both made mistakes. That was wrong, and I'm sorry."

Harper crossed her arms. "Pop-pop says James is a super bad person who's only nice now because he wants to join our family and steal Mommy away."

I made a mental note to have a serious conversation with my father. "Pop-pop doesn't know everything about James and me. Sometimes even grandparents can be wrong."

"But he says—"

"I know what he says," I interrupted gently. "But James loves you both very much. He didn't know about you when you were babies, but now that he does, he wants nothing more than to be your dad."

"Too late," Harper declared dramatically. "We already decided."

The next day, I told James everything—how the twins had discovered he was their biological father, my father's damaging comments, and their feelings of betrayal. His face went ashen, the color draining away as I spoke. When I finished, he simply stared into space for several long moments before murmuring, "It looks like I'm starting at negative one hundred points. I'll have to earn back trust I didn't even know I'd lost."

Over the next two weeks, James launched what could only be described as a full-scale campaign to win back the twins' affection. The sheer determination in his approach might have been amusing if it hadn't been so heartbreaking to watch.

On the first day, I opened my door to find two enormous teddy bears propped in the hallway, each standing taller than the children themselves. A small card attached to one bear's bow read simply: "For Harper and Theo, with love from James." 

The twins emerged from the breakfast table, still in their pajamas, and froze at the sight. 

"Whoa," Theo whispered, clearly impressed despite himself.

Harper recovered first, crossing her arms. "They have to stay outside."

"Why?" I asked, trying not to smile at her serious expression.

"Because," she declared, "teddy bears can feel things too. They'll get used to us, and then when James turns out to be a big fibber again, they'll be sad." She pointed to the hallway corner. "They have to stay in time-out until James proves he's not a liar-pants." 

And so the bears remained, sentinels in the hallway, drawing curious looks from neighbors for days.

James wasn't deterred. The day after the teddy bear incident, he arrived at the apartment dressed in what appeared to be a hastily acquired SpongeBob SquarePants costume, complete with giant square yellow headpiece and brown pants.

"What are you doing?" I hissed, blocking the doorway so the twins couldn't see him.

"Kids love SpongeBob," he whispered back, his voice muffled by the foam head. "I did research."

Unfortunately, his research failed to account for one critical factor: Harper's uncanny ability to spot fakes.

"That's the tallest, skinniest SpongeBob in the whole wide world," she declared when I reluctantly let him in. "It's obviously James in there. Real SpongeBob is square and short!"

James removed the foam head, revealing his flushed face underneath. "You caught me."

"You can't trick us with costumes," Theo informed him gravely. "We're five, not babies."

I watched James's expression fall, but he recovered quickly, smoothing his features into a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "You're right. That was silly of me."

***

By the third day, James's tactics grew more extravagant. I received a panicked call from the twins' school.

"Ms. Lewis, there's a helicopter attempting to land in the park across from our playground," the administrator explained, sounding frazzled. "The pilot claims he's here to pick up Harper and Theo Lewis. He says he was sent by James Thornton?"