CHAPTER 5: BETSY’S SECRET
I arranged to meet Betsy at a private tearoom.
She arrived wearing pearls, gloves, and the expression of a woman attending a negotiation rather than meeting the mother of her granddaughter.
“I assume you want money,” she said.
“I already have money.”
“Then why did you ask me here?”
I placed a copy of Connor’s vasectomy report on the table.
For the first time, Betsy’s confidence disappeared.
She did not pick up the document.
“I know what it says.”
“You knew?”
“I found the insurance statement last year.”
“Did Connor tell you why he had the procedure?”
“He said your treatments were over. He said he didn’t want you trapping him with another pregnancy.”
My daughter had been created months before the vasectomy, from the final embryo Connor and I had stored together.
Connor had known that transfer was scheduled.
He had simply assumed it would fail.
“Did you know before Alyssa announced her pregnancy?”
“Yes.”
“And you believed Connor was the father?”
Betsy looked toward the window.
“Alyssa said the procedure must have failed.”
“The laboratory confirmed it didn’t.”
“I didn’t know about the tests.”
“But Alyssa did.”
Betsy’s fingers tightened around her teacup.
I showed her the clinic-access records.
“She walked into my hospital room knowing her child could not be Connor’s.”
Betsy slowly lowered the cup.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then her anger shifted away from me.
“That little liar.”
“You humiliated your granddaughter because of that liar.”
“Do not pretend you came here for an apology.”
“I came because Connor is about to sell a company he does not own.”
Betsy’s face hardened again.
“You cannot stop him.”
“I control the trust.”
“He told me you signed everything over when you married him.”
“He lied.”
The silence between us became heavy.
Betsy finally reached into her handbag and removed a folded document.
“I found this in Alyssa’s room.”
It was an invoice from a private reproductive clinic. The document claimed Alyssa had received an insemination procedure using preserved genetic material belonging to Connor.
But the account used to pay the invoice belonged to Blue Crest Strategies.
Evan’s shell company.
Before leaving, Betsy caught my wrist.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Alyssa has done this before.”
I stared at her.
Betsy’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“Three years ago, she told another married executive she was carrying his son.”
“And what happened?”
“The pregnancy disappeared when he demanded a DNA test.”
May you like
Betsy glanced over her shoulder.
“That man was Evan’s former employer.”
