CHAPTER 10: THE SECOND ENVELOPE
“You can’t remove me,” Connor said.'
His voice was loud, but the confidence was gone.
“I built that company.”
“You managed it,” I replied. “My trust financed and owns it.”
Connor looked toward several board members seated among the guests.
None of them defended him.
The lead independent director stood.
“Mr. Connor, your access to company systems has been suspended pending investigation.”
Connor turned toward Evan.
“You authorized those transfers.”
“Using your credentials,” Evan answered.
“You said they were consulting fees.”
“And you never asked because part of the money was paying for your mistress.”
Connor rushed toward him, but security held him back.
Alyssa removed her engagement ring.
“You were never supposed to find out this way.”
Connor stared at her.
“You were going to marry me.”
“I was going to survive you.”
He looked around the ballroom.
The investors he had planned to impress were watching his life collapse.
The reporters were recording every second.
The woman he had discarded stood calmly in front of him, holding the daughter he had rejected.
“This is your revenge?” he asked me.
“No. This is accountability.”
“You humiliated me at my own wedding.”
“You brought your pregnant mistress into my hospital room.”
Connor’s eyes dropped to Brinley.
For the first time since her birth, he looked at her for more than a second.
She was awake now.
Her dark eyes studied him quietly.
Something changed in his expression.
Not love.
Calculation.
“You’re trying to keep my daughter away from me,” he said loudly.
The sudden claim shocked even Betsy.
“You called her useless,” I said.
“I was emotional.”
“You threw divorce papers into her hospital blanket.”
“I made a mistake.”
“You tried to destroy her embryo records.”
Connor looked at Alyssa.
“That was her idea.”
Alyssa shook her head immediately.
“You ordered it.”
Connor turned back toward the guests.
“She’s lying about everything.”
Then he pointed at Brinley.
“And that baby may not even be mine.”
Alyssa smiled faintly, sensing an opportunity.
“The clinic employee told us the embryo records had been altered.”
Connor looked triumphant.
“There. You heard her.”
I reached into my bag.
The third envelope remained sealed.
Connor had no idea that his attorney’s paternity challenge had already given me the proof that would destroy his final lie.
I held out the envelope.
“This report was completed by an independent laboratory under court supervision.”
Connor did not take it.
So Parker opened it for him.
“Brinley is your biological daughter,” Parker announced. “Probability of paternity: greater than 99.99 percent.”
Connor stared at the child in my arms.
His daughter.
His only confirmed biological child.
May you like
Then his attorney pushed through the crowd and handed Parker a new document.
Connor had filed an emergency petition for full custody that morning.
