Chapter 6 - WHY THEY WANTED MY BABY'S RECORDS
I became very calm.
Trauma nurses do that when panic is useless.
“Who requested them?”
A private risk-management firm.
Client number linked to Dre Strategic Holdings.
Again the same entity used to follow Sabrina.
“What exactly did they request?”
Prenatal genetic screening.
Expected delivery date.
Potential complications.
Paternity confirmation.
My stomach tightened.
“Paternity?”
Matthias looked offended.
Then afraid.
“I never requested that.”
I believed him.
Maybe because his fear was immediate.
Why would corporate conspirators care about our daughter's paternity?
Charles knew.
Of course he did.
He closed his eyes.
“The family trust.”
I nearly laughed.
Always a trust.
The Dre Family Control Trust transferred additional voting shares when Matthias had his first biological child.
Not male.
Any child.
The child's legal guardian—if Matthias became incapacitated—would exercise proxy rights temporarily.
That guardian was me.
My daughter wasn't only a baby to whoever planned the Hensley collapse.
She affected control.
If the company imploded and Matthias were removed, my proxy rights could block certain asset conversions.
Unless the child wasn't biologically his.
Hence the paternity file.
Someone hoped for doubt.
Or planned to manufacture it.
Then Adrian discovered a draft lab report inside Sabrina's files.
Paternity probability:
0%.
Fake.
No sample had ever been taken from Matthias.
It had been prepared in advance.
Someone planned to claim our daughter wasn't his.
Then what?
Under the trust, my proxy rights vanished.
Control reverted to the senior trustees.
Charles.
Eleanor.
And one outside trustee.
Richard Vale.
Fiona went white.
“My father is trustee?”
Charles nodded.
For sixteen years.
That made him perfectly positioned to benefit from a manufactured succession crisis.
Then Matthias stared at his father.
“You let Vale into our family trust?”
“He saved us during the recession.”
Of course.
Money bought proximity.
Then another file surfaced.
Life insurance.
Matthias.
$75 million.
Corporate-owned policy.
Beneficiary:
Dre Holdings.
Normal for key executives.
Except an additional rider activated if death occurred during a control dispute.
Proceeds could be used to satisfy Vale Capital debt.
I stared.
“You're worth more dead during a takeover.”
Matthias laughed once.
No humor.
Then Fiona whispered:
“My father asked me two months ago whether Serena's pregnancy was high risk.”
I turned.
“What did you say?”
“That I didn't know.”
“Did he ask again?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Before the party.
Before the device.
Then Adrian's phone rang.
He listened.
His expression hardened.
The anonymous sender had contacted him again.
New message:
The Christmas device was only a rehearsal.
May you like
The real event is childbirth.
My daughter had become part of the plan.
