Lucifer wasn't sure how long he stared at the file Maze presented him with, but he knew it was for quite a few minutes. The child that was taken from the detective was given to Matthew Davis, Beatrice's biological father, or at least who Lucifer thought was her biological father. It wasn't hard to make the necessary deductions. Reading the file only proved him right, unfortunately. Beatrice was the same age as the detective's child, and as it turned out, had the same name. Lucifer had never known the child's full name before. The detective always referred to her as Trixie, but her full name was Beatrice. If he'd known that, he wondered if it would've raised a red flag for him. Well, it didn't seem to raise a red flag to the detective, so probably not.

Lucifer never saw this coming. He never considered the possibility that Davis had stolen Beatrice. Why would that occur to him though? Why would he think the bastard would go out of his way to get his hands on a child just to try to sell her later? Plus, why would anyone just assume without proof that a child was stolen?

If Lucifer had known four years ago that Beatrice had been taken from someone, he would've done everything in his power to return her. He wouldn't participate in the theft of a child. That sort of thing was below even the Devil. But it was different now. He loved Beatrice more than anything. She was his child. He couldn't imagine going on without her in his life, without caring for her on a daily basis. How could he just give up his child, as though she was never there.

"You get it now, right?" Maze asked, interrupting Lucifer's thought process. "You need to bury this damn information. Burn the damned thing. No one can know about that."

Lucifer would be lying if he said he wasn't tempted to do just that. He hated it, but he did wish to bury it. He wanted to destroy anything that could possibly threaten his relationship with Beatrice, but how could he? Destroying this file would go against everything he was. It would mean going against his word. He promised the detective he would make sure she found her child. He couldn't go back on that. Plus, it wouldn't be fair. This was torturing the detective. She didn't deserve to continue to agonize over not knowing what happened to her child.

"Did you hear me?" Maze asked in an irritated tone. He wasn't answering her, and it was pissing her off. There shouldn't be anything for him to think about. It should be obvious what needed to be done. Lucifer should have already destroyed that file. She didn't care what strange attachment Lucifer had for the human. He couldn't let her take his kid away.

"Leave, Mazikeen," Lucifer ordered. He couldn't deal with her right now. He needed to think about what he was going to do next.

"I'm not going anywhere until you destroy that thing!" Maze yelled. This wasn't just about Lucifer. Maze cared about that kid too. She was probably the only human, with the recent exception of Linda, that she actually liked. She wouldn't just let Decker take her away.

"I said leave!" Lucifer snarled.

"Daddy?" a small voice called out.

Lucifer turned to see his daughter standing several feet away. "Beatrice, you're supposed to be sleeping."

"I know. I had a nightmare. My other dad came and took me away," Beatrice said. She had that dream before more than once. She knew that her daddy would never let that happen, but sometimes she still got scared anyway.

Lucifer dropped the file he had on the couch and walked over to his daughter. He immediately bent down to her level. "You know I would never allow that, my urchin. That man can never harm you again. He doesn't even have the ability to anymore."

"I know. You wouldn't let him take me away. You promised no one ever would. I just needed to see you. You always make me feel safe, Daddy," Beatrice said before hugging her father.

Lucifer hugged her back tightly. This child meant everything to him, and it was clearly the same for her. Not only could he not live without her, he didn't think it was in her best interests to be apart from him. She needed him too.

Lucifer pulled away after a second. "Are you ready to go back to bed? Shall I tuck you in?"

Beatrice nodded. "Will you sing to me?"

"Of course," he said before standing up. He took her hand and led her to her bedroom. His decision had been made, or at least one decision had. He would not be separated from Beatrice. He would do whatever he had to do to keep her with him. Even if he had to fight the detective.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

The next evening, Lucifer was downstairs at LUX. He shut the club down for the night, so he could speak with the detective. He didn't want to do this in the penthouse, where Beatrice was sleeping. He didn't want her waking up and overhearing, and he supposed a part of him also wanted to keep at least a small amount of distance between the detective and Beatrice for now.

Lucifer stood by his vow that no one would take Beatrice from him. He would take on the detective if he had to, but he also couldn't keep the truth from her. He would hang onto his child, but he would do it the right way. He would not lie and he would not break his word. The detective deserved the truth.

All too soon, Lucifer heard the front door open. He didn't bother looking up to see who it was. He knew it was the detective. Instead, he poured drinks for himself and the detective.

"Hey. I'm glad you called. You didn't come to the station today, and we had an active case. That's not like you," Chloe said. Lucifer was not one to back out in the middle of an investigation. He always stayed until the case was solved.

"Yes, well, I thought it best not to see you until I figured out how to say what I needed to," Lucifer said before holding out a drink for her.

Chloe shook her head. "I'm good."

"Believe me, you'll need this," he said as he put the drink down right in front of her.

"What's going on?" Chloe asked concerned. Something was wrong. She could tell just by Lucifer's demeanor. He was very worried about whatever he was about to tell her.

Lucifer took his drink and walked towards one of the tables, motioning for the detective to follow him as he walked. He took a seat in one of chairs and took a large sip of his drink.

Chloe sat across from him and gave him her attention. She was growing more worried by the second.

"You already know that Beatrice is adopted. You found that out when you did your research on me, but you don't know the whole story," Lucifer said.

"Yeah, I figured there was more to the story than what was in the official Social Services report, but I figured it was better if I didn't know the details," Chloe said. She knew that what was in that report was true because Lucifer didn't lie, but she also figured that Lucifer omitted a lot, like what actually happened to Beatrice's parents. She also figured he used less than ethical means to get the state to give him custody of the child. She didn't really care about those details. She knew that whatever Lucifer did was to protect Beatrice.

"Yes, I would've agreed before, but now, you deserve to know, and I need you to know so that you understand," Lucifer said.

Chloe nodded. She didn't know where he was going with this, but she figured the best way to figure that out was to just let him say what he wanted to.

"Everything in the official record is true, but there were things I left out. I met a man named Matthew Davis when he requested a favor of me. Maze and I met him at his home. Understand, Detective, that I will do a lot of things asked of me, including bending the law, but what he wanted was something that not even I would ever stoop to doing," Lucifer said firmly.

"Lucifer, I know you have morals. There are certain laws you don't care about, but you would never harm an innocent. I'm assuming that's what he wanted from you," Chloe said.

Lucifer nodded. "He did ask me to take Beatrice off his hands, as is in the report, but what he really wanted was even more depraved than that. He spoke of it callously. He called her a problem he wanted to get rid of. He suggested that we could both make a great deal of money from it."

Chloe was disgusted. She could guess what Lucifer was saying. That man wanted to sell his own daughter. Chloe couldn't understand people like that. Her own daughter was stolen to be sold, and Chloe would give anything to get her back. This man had actually wanted to sell his own child, like a piece of property. He threw away his own child, while people like Chloe would give anything for the chance to see theirs even just one more time.

"I was furious. I was affronted that this man would even suggest that I'd be willing to do something like that. Before I could unleash that fury though, Beatrice made her presence known. She dropped something, and Davis went after her. I heard what must have been him hitting her. I went after him. When I got to him, he was preparing to strike her again," Lucifer explained.

Chloe immediately put a hand up to cut him off. "Stop. I don't want to hear what you did to that man. I'm a cop. If I know what you did, I'm legally obligated to do something about it, and I don't want to. I know I should, but I don't care what you did to that man. You did it to protect Beatrice."

"Very well, but so you know, I didn't kill him," he said.

"That's good enough for me. I'm not sure why you're telling me this though. We've been partners for months. You never felt the need to tell me all this before," Chloe said.

"Because I need you to understand what happened and why I handled things the way I did," Lucifer said. Honestly, what he needed her to understand was that he had no knowledge that he had adopted her child.

"I do understand, Lucifer. Look, in most cases, I wouldn't be happy about someone using the methods you probably used, but I know you and Beatrice. I know what that man did to her. I've heard things both from you and her. You couldn't leave her there. Yes, you could've called Social Services and handled her adoption more by the book, but that might not have worked out as well for her. I've seen for myself that the process doesn't always end the best way for children. They do the best they can, but it's not enough a lot of times," Chloe said.

"I had to make sure she stayed with me. She begged me to, and I gave her my word," Lucifer said.

Chloe nodded. "I know what that means to you. Lucifer, what is going on? Is someone trying to take Beatrice away from you?" If that was the case, she'd do whatever she could to help stop that. Lucifer was Beatrice's father. It didn't make what DNA said. Those two loved each other more than anything. She would fight for them.

"Not yet. You have to understand that there were certain things I didn't know then. I couldn't have known. I had her medical records. I had no reason to think they weren't genuine. I had no reason to think that the man I took Beatrice from wasn't actually her father," Lucifer said.

Chloe gasped in shock. She hadn't seen that coming. "What?"

"If I'd known then, I would've done something different. I would've ensured she was returned to where she belonged. I swear that to you, Detective. I'm sorry. I'm sorry because it's too late now. Beatrice is mine now. I am her father! I'll not allow anyone to say any different," Lucifer said firmly.

"Slow down. I'm not understanding all of this. What are you trying to tell me, Lucifer?" Chloe asked.

"I'm sorry," he said again.

Chloe felt her body tense a little, because Lucifer didn't appear to just be making a general apology for the situation he found himself in. He seemed to be apologizing to her directly. That didn't make much sense though. He had nothing to apologize to her for. "What are you trying to say to me?"

Lucifer took a deep breath and looked directly at her. "I spoke with Malcolm Graham. I made him tell him everything about taking your child. The search for you child led me right to mine. It's Beatrice, Detective."

Chloe was grateful she was sitting because she was pretty sure her legs would've given out otherwise. Her whole body felt dumb. Beatrice, a little girl she'd felt an almost instant connection to, was her daughter.