Welcome to my newest story. This is the introduction and something I hadn't planned as it was written after I wrote the majority of the first chapter. I have been excited for this story for a while now. The first real chapter will take place directly after this one. And the break Zoe is suffering from here is the same break I have been dealing with all summer when it comes to my nephew. I should mention that I am not too fond of the Ethan part but I have rewritten that part numerous times. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Hart of Dixie or the characters used. They belong to their rightful owners.

"Sweetie, want to go to the park?" Her father asked on his rare day off of work. She didn't miss the way he placed his pager into his pocket.

"Yes!" She cheered joyfully. Nothing could beat the days she got to spend with her dad. Those days were rare, just like playing at the park.

They walked hand in hand to the little park around the corner of their home, Zoe in a rush, pulling her father along. Ethan chuckling as he kept his daughter at a steady pace. Spending time with his daughter had been rare the last few months. And he needed to amend that. Getting to the opening of the park he let his daughter's hand go, walking behind her as she ran to go down the slide.

"Watch me dad," she demanded, looking over at her dad, to make sure he is watching her go across the monkey bars.

"I'm watching, Zoe," he told her with a smile. He watched her play for a half hour before she pulled him over to the swings to push her.

"Higher dad, higher," she laughed, pumping her little legs, making herself go higher, above the few trees scattered around the park.

"I'm trying sweetie," Ethan laughed, gently pushing her on the back to get her going higher.

One second he is laughing along with his daughter as she goes higher and higher flying through the air on the swing and the next second he is beside her on the ground as she is crying and holding her arm, saying it hurts between sobs wrecking her little body. Being the surgeon that he is, he can tell right away that her arm is broken.

Her tears didn't subside when she got to the hospital as they hooked her up to machines, waiting on the doctors to come and assess just how bad her arm happened to be, letting them know just what type of surgery they could be looking at.

"Dr. Hart, can we have a word?" A nurse asked, peering into the hospital room. Ethan kissed his daughters head promising he would be back in a few moments.

"What is this regarding?" He asked Nurse Colette, having worked with her on various shifts over the years.

The look on Colette's face told him everything and nothing at all. The words she spoke made no sense to him. He wanted to be prepared in case his little girl happened to need blood in case something went wrong. He wanted to be ahead of the curve and now they were telling him he wasn't a match to his own daughter. That she wasn't his. And the more he thought about it the more it made sense with the timeline of his wife and just how fast she wanted to be getting married upon her return home from the cruise. Her announcing her pregnancy so soon after they were married it hasn't seemed off at the time and now it made perfect sense. He had been raising another man's child all along.

"Ethan, how is our baby girl?" Candice asked, running up to her husband, having got the frantic call from her husband after her meeting ended. She made sure to clear the rest of her day.

"Care to enlighten me?" Ethan asked, getting a very confused look from his wife. "Just who is the father to the child I have been raising?" He questioned, his voice growing cold, years threatening to spill over.

"The cruise," she sighed, knowing she couldn't lie her way out. "Can we talk about this at home?" She questioned, not wanting to make a scene. She would tell him everything he wanted to know once their daughter was safe at home.

"I'll meet you there," he told her, not able to stand his wife. Taking one look in the room to see Zoe, tore him apart even further, he couldn't do it. He couldn't pretend any longer. "I can't be the guy that raises another man's child," he said, watching Zoe through the open door. He didn't wait for his wife to say anything, before he left the hospital.

Nurse Colette quickly filled Candice in on everything that her husband refused to tell her. She had moved away to give the couple some privacy while they had talked.

Thankfully the break wasn't a bad one and it was a clean break. They wouldn't have to put a pin in her bone to keep it in place. Instead they stuck with doing closed reduction. And once the medication wore off they were dismissed from the hospital, an appointment made for a week later to check on how the bone was healing and if she could be put in a hard case over that of the splint they put on her arm because of the swelling.

A month of being restricted of the things she can't be doing with her arm now in a pink cast with pictures and names scribbled all over it, she sat at the kitchen table eating her lunch with her mom, who had been home more often in the last month to look after her daughter.

"When's dad coming back?" Zoe asked, looking at her mom, placing her cup of juice on the table. In the last month she had seen her dad once and all he did was give her a sad smile.

"He's not," Candice outright told her daughter not seeing the point in lying to her about. Not when things were about to change drastically for them within the next two weeks.

"Why?" Zoe questioned, picking at her lunch.

"Because he's not your father, Zoe. And I went about it all wrong," she confessed.

"He's still my dad and you made him leave!"

Zoe angrily yelled. As angry as an 8 year old could be at her mom. "Why couldn't you have been honest with him from the start?" Zoe asked, little tears streaming down her face.

"It's complicated, Zoe," Candice sighed. "You need to understand that he isn't your father and the guy that is your dad will be here any minute and I expect you to be on your best behavior," mother warned her daughter.

"Don't worry, he's not at fault for what you did. I've been taught not to lie, but it's okay for you to do it. How is that fair, mom?" She questioned, wiping her years from her face.

"Would you drop the attitude, Zoe?" Candice asked, walking to the door to let their company in, now that they knocked on the door. "Harley, hi," she said, pulling the door open to let him in. Ever since that fateful night at the hospital she got into contact with Harley and told him everything she should have years ago when she found herself pregnant with his child. This would be her second chance and she wasn't about to let that love gonna second time.

"Hello, Candice," he smiled entering the apartment. "Zoe, hello. It's lovely to meet you," he said, sitting down in the chair across from her, now that she moved to the living room.

"Hi," she smiled softly at him.

The rest of Zoe's afternoon was spent getting to know Harley, her true father. She did find that it would be hard for him to replace the father she lost due to a lie her mother told. But she willing to give Harley a real shot at being her father. After all he had as much say in the situation as she did.

The very last thing she wanted to do is move to some small town called Bluebell. She wanted to stay in New York, she didn't get a choice in the matter as they were heading to live with Harley in Bluebell, Alabama.