Chapter 7 - The Brother I Never Knew
I read the birth certificate three times.
Then a fourth.
“No.”
Evelyn didn't speak.
“My parents had one child.”
Teresa looked away.
I turned toward her.
“You knew?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“My mother told me years ago.”
“Your mother?”
“She knew your father.”
I felt my pulse in my throat.
“Why would they hide a child?”
Evelyn answered.
“Because Daniel was dangerous.”
“Daniel was a child.”
“Not the Daniel you know.”
She opened another file.
Photographs.
A boy.
A teenager.
A young man.
Daniel Crane.
Except his last name wasn't Crane.
It was Bennett.
Daniel Bennett.
My brother.
The truth was ugly.
My father had a second family.
My mother knew.
She stayed.
Daniel was sent away after an incident nobody wanted documented.
I looked at Teresa.
“What incident?”
She swallowed.
“He almost killed someone.”
“Who?”
“Your father.”
I sat down.
The room felt too small.
Daniel had spent years building a network around my company.
Not because he wanted money.
Because he wanted me.
Evelyn continued.
“Your father eventually found him and tried to cut him out permanently.”
“And then?”
“The accident.”
I looked at the photograph again.
My father's face.
Daniel behind him.
The last picture they ever took together.
“What does Daniel want now?”
“Revenge.”
“For what?”
“For being erased.”
I stood.
“Then why involve Teresa?”
Evelyn hesitated.
“Because she agreed to help him.”
I looked at my wife.
“Did you?”
Teresa nodded slowly.
“I did.”
The admission cut deeper than I'd expected.
“Why?”
“Because he had Chloe.”
My entire body went rigid.
“What?”
“He never touched her. But he made sure I believed he could.”
Tears ran down her face.
“He sent photographs of her school. Her bedroom. Her route home. He knew everything.”
I turned away.
“He told me if I cooperated, you would disappear and Chloe would live.”
“And you believed him?”
“I had no choice.”
“You always have a choice.”
She looked at me.
“Not when they put a knife against your daughter's throat.”
Silence.
Luis stepped forward.
“Boss.”
“What?”
“We have a bigger problem.”
He placed his phone on the table.
A video was playing.
Chloe walking out of school.
A black SUV behind her.
Then Daniel stepped out.
He never touched her.
He simply stood there.
And smiled at the camera.
The video ended.
A message appeared.
MIDNIGHT.
BRING THE ORIGINAL LEDGER.
COME ALONE.
OR YOUR DAUGHTER LEARNS WHAT HAPPENED TO HER GRANDFATHER.
I felt the room disappear around me.
“What original ledger?”
Evelyn looked at me.
“The one your father hid.”
“Where?”
She stared at the brown jacket I'd found in the garbage bag.
“Inside the lining.”
I grabbed the jacket.
My father's jacket.
I searched the collar.
Nothing.
The sleeves.
Nothing.
Then my fingers found a seam along the inside back.
I cut it open.
A tiny brass key fell into my palm.
And something else.
A folded piece of paper.
Only five words were written on it.
May you like
YOUR BROTHER IS NOT ALONE.
Then the lights went out.
