She turned away for a moment, gathering strength. Then she looked back at him.
“Records showing your mother had access to my prenatal files.”
Ryan went cold.
“No.”
“She knew about my blood pressure. She knew the risk. She knew exactly what could happen if I didn’t get care quickly.”
Ryan’s lips trembled.
“She wouldn’t do that.”
Claire’s expression hardened.
“She answered the hospital calls and told them not to contact you again.”
Ryan remembered his mother’s bright smile, the champagne, the music, and her hand squeezing his shoulder as she said, “Tonight is about family.”
Family.
The word suddenly tasted poisonous.
“Why?” he whispered.
Claire did not answer immediately. Instead, she reached beside her pillow and picked up a folded paper. Her hand shook as she held it out.
Ryan took it.
It was a legal document. At first, his eyes could not focus. Then he saw the heading.
AMENDED TRUST AGREEMENT.
His daughter’s name had already been entered.
Not by him.
Not by Claire.
By Evelyn Ashford.
Ryan’s heart nearly stopped.
“What is this?”
Claire’s voice became barely more than a whisper.
“Your mother needed my child alive.”
Ryan looked up, confused and horrified.
Claire swallowed.
“But she needed me gone.”
The room seemed to darken.
General Bennett stepped forward.
“The Ashford family trust transfers controlling shares to the first biological grandchild born into the bloodline. Until that child turns twenty-one, the legal guardian controls those shares.”
Ryan struggled to process the words.
“My mother…”
