Chapter 7: My Twin Brother Was Alive
The message remained on my screen.
COME BEFORE MIDNIGHT.
BRING NATHAN.
OR YOUR TWIN KILLS LUCAS.
I read it three times.
My twin brother.
The words felt absurd.
Impossible.
A cruel joke written by someone who knew exactly how to break me.
I looked at Nathan.
He wasn't laughing.
He looked like a man watching a bomb count down.
“You knew,” I whispered.
Nathan shook his head.
“Not everything.”
“But you knew I had a twin.”
“I knew there was another child.”
“You knew he was alive?”
“No.”
“You knew my parents hid him?”
“Yes.”
I stepped closer.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
Nathan's eyes dropped.
“Because your father made me swear.”
“Everyone keeps using Dad as an excuse.”
I grabbed his collar.
“My wife was drugged.”
“My unborn child nearly died.”
“A child was kidnapped.”
“And now you're telling me I have a twin brother who has been hiding for my entire life.”
Nathan didn't fight me.
He simply said:
“Your father was afraid of him.”
I released him.
“Why?”
“Because your brother knew what happened the night you were born.”
“What happened?”
Nathan hesitated.
Then whispered,
“You were supposed to die.”
The room went silent.
I stared at him.
“What?”
“You were born first.”
I shook my head.
“Dad always said I was born healthy.”
“He lied.”
“What happened to me?”
“You stopped breathing.”
My stomach tightened.
“And my twin?”
“He was born minutes later.”
Nathan looked toward the window.
“Your mother chose you.”
“Chose me for what?”
“To live.”
“And him?”
“She gave him away.”
My chest tightened.
“Who took him?”
Nathan shook his head.
“We never knew.”
I stared at the photograph again.
My face.
My eyes.
My brother's face.
I couldn't stop thinking about the drawing in the hidden room.
The faceless father.
The boy's warning.
Don't trust Uncle Nathan.
I looked at my watch.
11:07 p.m.
Less than an hour.
“We're going to the cemetery.”
Nathan nodded.
“Then we need to leave now.”
We drove through the rain.
Neither of us spoke for nearly twenty minutes.
Finally, I asked:
“What was his name?”
Nathan looked at me.
“Your twin?”
“Yes.”
He swallowed.
“Adrian.”
I repeated the name silently.
Adrian.
It felt strange hearing it.
A name that should have been familiar.
A name that belonged to someone who shared my blood.
Someone who had spent his entire life knowing I existed while I had never known he did.
“Why would he hate me?”
“He may not.”
“Then why threaten Lucas?”
“Because he wants you to come.”
I looked at Nathan.
“You're saying the threat is a trap.”
“Yes.”
“Then why go?”
“Because if he has Lucas, we don't have a choice.”
The cemetery appeared through the rain.
Old iron gates.
Dead trees.
Rows of black gravestones.
I parked near the entrance.
The clock showed 11:42.
Nathan checked his weapon.
I stepped out.
The rain soaked my coat instantly.
We walked between the graves.
At the far end stood my father's family mausoleum.
The stone door was open.
A light flickered inside.
I stopped.
“Nathan.”
He nodded.
“I see it.”
We approached slowly.
Inside, candles burned around a single coffin.
I recognized it immediately.
My father's coffin.
The coffin from his funeral two years earlier.
I walked toward it.
The lid was open.
Empty.
I stared inside.
There was no body.
No remains.
Nothing.
Nathan whispered,
“I told you.”
My father's body had never been inside.
Then someone applauded.
Slowly.
From the darkness behind us.
We turned.
A man stepped into the candlelight.
I couldn't breathe.
He looked exactly like me.
Same jaw.
Same eyes.
Same height.
Same scar above the left eyebrow.
The scar I had gotten when I was seven.
He had it too.
He smiled.
“Hello, Daniel.”
I couldn't speak.
Nathan raised his gun.
The man laughed.
“Still pointing weapons at family?”
Nathan froze.
The man looked at him.
“Hello, Nathan.”
Nathan's face became pale.
“Adrian.”
My twin smiled.
“You remember me.”
“You were supposed to be dead.”
“So was your father.”
I stepped forward.
“Where is my son?”
Adrian's smile disappeared.
“You mean Lucas.”
“Yes.”
“He's alive.”
“Where?”
“You'll see him soon.”
“Why did you take him?”
Adrian looked at me.
“Because your mother was going to kill him.”
I felt my stomach drop.
“What?”
“Evelyn knows who Lucas really is.”
“She knows he's Claire's son.”
Adrian shook his head.
“No.”
He took a step closer.
“She knows who his father is.”
I looked at Nathan.
Adrian smiled.
“Nathan isn't Lucas's father.”
Nathan's face hardened.
“Stop.”
Adrian ignored him.
“Your mother told you that lie because it was easier than telling the truth.”
I looked at Adrian.
“Then who is?”
He stared directly into my eyes.
“You.”
I laughed.
“No.”
“Daniel.”
“Claire told me the baby wasn't mine.”
“Because she was protecting you.”
“From what?”
Adrian's expression changed.
“From yourself.”
The words made no sense.
He continued.
“Eight years ago, Claire was pregnant.”
“Yes.”
“With Lucas.”
“Yes.”
“But Lucas wasn't Nathan's child.”
I looked at him.
“Then whose?”
Adrian pointed toward me.
“Yours.”
I shook my head.
“I wasn't with Claire then.”
“You were.”
“No.”
“You just don't remember.”
A cold sensation moved through my body.
“What happened to my memory?”
Adrian looked at Nathan.
“Nathan, tell him.”
Nathan remained silent.
“Tell him.”
Nathan finally whispered,
“Your father drugged you.”
I stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because you found out about Adrian.”
My head began pounding.
Memories flickered.
A hospital hallway.
A woman crying.
A newborn baby.
My father shouting.
Someone injecting something into my arm.
Then darkness.
I grabbed my head.
Adrian stepped closer.
“You were twenty-one.”
I stared at him.
“You met Claire.”
“You fell in love with her.”
“She became pregnant.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Your father discovered the pregnancy.”
“Why would he care?”
“Because Lucas carried something in his blood.”
“What?”
Adrian looked toward the coffin.
“Your father's secret.”
“What secret?”
Adrian smiled.
“The reason he built the clinic.”
I stared at him.
“The clinic wasn't a medical clinic.”
“No.”
“What was it?”
Adrian's expression became cold.
“It was where your father experimented on his own family.”
I felt sick.
“Experiments?”
“Genetic experiments.”
Nathan stepped forward.
“That's enough.”
Adrian turned toward him.
“You're afraid he'll remember.”
Nathan's hand tightened around the gun.
Adrian continued.
“Daniel wasn't supposed to survive.”
I looked at him.
“What happened?”
“You were the first successful subject.”
I stared at him.
“Subject?”
Adrian nodded.
“Our father believed twins gave him an advantage.”
“What advantage?”
“He wanted to create a child who could inherit everything.”
I felt my blood run cold.
“Everything?”
“The company.”
“The money.”
“The properties.”
“The biological data.”
I looked at Adrian.
“And Lucas?”
“Lucas was proof it worked.”
I couldn't breathe.
My unborn child.
The child Claire was carrying.
The child my father had protected.
The child my family had been willing to kill.
A car engine suddenly roared outside.
Adrian turned.
His expression changed.
“They found us.”
“Who?”
He looked at me.
“My mother.”
A gunshot shattered the night.
The candle beside Adrian exploded.
We ducked.
Another shot.
Nathan grabbed me.
“Down!”
People were moving outside.
At least four.
Then a woman's voice echoed through the mausoleum.
“Adrian!”
My mother's voice.
Evelyn.
“You've caused enough trouble!”
Adrian smiled.
“Mom.”
Then he looked at me.
“Now you'll finally see what she did the night you were born.”
He grabbed my arm.
“Run.”
We moved through the rear passage of the mausoleum.
Nathan followed.
Behind us, my mother shouted:
“Daniel!”
I stopped.
She screamed:
“Ask your brother why your father wanted one twin dead!”
I turned toward Adrian.
His face had gone pale.
I whispered,
“Why?”
He looked at me.
And for the first time, my twin brother seemed genuinely afraid.
“Because one of us isn't really your father's son.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
Adrian looked at Nathan.
Then at me.
“The DNA test was falsified.”
A gunshot echoed behind us.
Adrian grabbed my shoulder.
“And the real father is still alive.”
Then he whispered the name.
The name I had never heard before.
May you like
The name that made Nathan drop his gun.
“Marcus Vale.”
