Chapter 14 - “Bastard”
I had spent years treating Margaret's obsession with legitimacy like an outdated personality flaw.
After the assault, I examined it properly.
Her father—my grandfather—had built an entire family mythology around:
proper marriages.
proper names.
proper heirs.
Even though the family businesses had long since moved beyond any meaningful dynastic structure.
Margaret inherited the vocabulary.
Not the legal reality.
Noah had my surname because Claire and I chose it.
His birth certificate identified both parents.
My paternity had never been disputed.
I had full parental rights.
After Claire died, I was his surviving legal parent.
Whether Claire and I had exchanged wedding vows before his birth changed none of Margaret's authority.
She had none.
Yet emotionally, Margaret treated marriage as admission into a hierarchy.
Claire never received that admission.
Therefore, in Margaret's private logic, Noah remained provisional.
I asked Simon:
“Is there any legal meaning to her calling him illegitimate?”
“For your custody?”
“No.”
“For his right to live with me?”
“No.”
“For inheritance?”
“We aren't discussing inheritance, Daniel.”
Good.
I smiled despite myself.
Simon continued:
May you like
“Stop letting archaic vocabulary choose modern legal questions.”
That was the best sentence anyone gave me that month.
