Chapter 10 - CONRAD'S FIRST DAUGHTER
Gregory attacked Conrad verbally before nurses could even finish examining him.
“You’re lying.”
Conrad looked twenty years older than he had at the Christmas party.
Bruised face.
Split lip.
But his voice remained cold.
“Ask Claire’s mother.”
“She’s dead.”
“Convenient.”
DNA testing could answer the question.
It did.
By afternoon, preliminary records confirmed something neither family knew.
Claire Harlan was Conrad Dre’s biological daughter.
Decades earlier, Conrad had an affair with Gregory’s future wife.
She allowed Gregory to believe Claire was his child.
Years later, Fiona was born biologically to Gregory.
Meaning Claire and Fiona were maternal half-sisters.
Matthias and Fiona were paternal half-siblings through Gregory.
Claire had discovered everything through genetic testing four years earlier.
She was Conrad’s firstborn.
But Conrad never acknowledged her.
Instead, Matthias inherited the Dre name, career, estate position, and future control.
Claire received nothing.
Now her hatred made terrible sense.
Still, understanding motive did not excuse what she had done.
I asked Conrad,
“Did you know?”
“Not until last year.”
“What did you do when you found out?”
His silence answered.
“You paid her?”
“I offered a settlement.”
“How much?”
“Two million.”
I laughed in disbelief.
The family empire was worth hundreds of millions on paper, and Conrad tried to buy his secret daughter away for two.
Claire refused.
Then began preparing revenge.
But Conrad had secrets of his own.
Nathan confronted him with the forged collateral documents.
Conrad admitted manipulating the marital agreements.
He needed my trust to rescue Dre Capital.
“You were willing to steal from your granddaughter?”
“I intended to restore everything.”
“After using it without permission.”
He looked at me.
“I built something that employs thousands.”
“And you decided that made me expendable.”
“No.”
I repeated the sentence from my envelope.
“Collateral losses within acceptable parameters.”
Conrad froze.
“I never wrote that.”
I believed him.
Not because Conrad was decent.
Because he looked genuinely afraid.
Claire had written it.
Then Conrad revealed why.
The phrase came from an internal Dre Capital risk memo written fifteen years earlier after a construction accident killed three workers.
The executive who wrote it had recommended settling cheaply rather than accepting liability.
Conrad approved that recommendation.
Claire’s mother’s brother had been one of the dead workers.
This was not only about inheritance.
Claire believed the Dre family had destroyed both sides of her family.
Money was merely the instrument.
Nathan’s phone rang.
Police had found Claire.
Her vehicle was located near a private airfield.
No Claire.
But inside the trunk was a neonatal transport incubator.
Unused.
Prepared.
My hands began shaking.
She expected my baby to be born early.
My contractions intensified that evening.
Five centimeters.
Doctors warned delivery might be unavoidable.
Matthias stood quietly near the door.
He had not asked again to be allowed beside me.
Finally I said,
“You can come in.”
He approached.
Not touching.
“I’m sorry.”
“That sentence has a lot of work to do.”
“I know.”
He looked at the monitor.
“I don’t expect forgiveness.”
Good.
Then Nathan rushed into the room.
Claire had sent one final email.
A photograph.
She was standing inside the hospital.
On our floor.
And behind her was the neonatal intensive care unit.
Claire had never gone to the airport.
May you like
The incubator was a decoy.
She had been inside the hospital the entire time.
