Chapter 8 - THE BROTHER OF THE DEAD MANRobert Vale looked at Jonathan.
Neither spoke.
They were identical.
Except Robert's eyes were colder.
“You should be dead,” Jonathan said.
Robert smiled.
“So should you.”
Mother stepped backward.
“What have you done?”
Robert looked at her.
“You know exactly what I did.”
I looked between them.
“What is happening?”
Robert laughed softly.
“Your mother knows.”
Mother shook her head.
“I never agreed.”
“But you benefited.”
“That's not true.”
Robert's expression hardened.
“You took the children.”
“I saved them.”
“You hid them.”
“To save them.”
“You hid the truth.”
“To save Claire.”
Robert looked at me.
“You were never supposed to survive.”
Ethan attacked him.
Two security guards restrained my brother.
Ryan stepped forward.
“Let them go.”
Diane stared at him.
“You're still defending her?”
Ryan looked at me.
“Yes.”
Diane slapped him.
“You were given one task.”
“I failed.”
“You fell in love.”
“Yes.”
She laughed.
“What a pathetic weakness.”
Ryan looked at me.
“Run.”
Everything happened at once.
The lights went out.
Gunshots.
Screams.
Glass shattered.
Someone pulled me backward.
Lily.
We ran through the corridor.
Ethan followed.
Mother and Jonathan behind us.
Ryan stayed.
“Go!” he shouted.
We escaped through a side door.
Outside, sirens approached.
Police.
We stopped.
Ethan looked at me.
“Who called them?”
A police officer stepped from the shadows.
“Me.”
I recognized him.
Detective Marcus Hale.
He had questioned my family years earlier after Jonathan's disappearance.
He handed me a file.
“We've been tracking Vale operations for eleven years.”
“Then why didn't you arrest Diane?”
“Because every witness disappeared.”
“What about Robert?”
“We couldn't prove he existed.”
I stared.
“He exists.”
Hale nodded.
“And now we have proof.”
He looked at the pendant.
“That is what everyone has been searching for.”
“What is it?”
“A digital authentication key.”
“For the trust?”
“For the entire Vale corporate network.”
I felt sick.
“What does that mean?”
“Your grandfather didn't leave you money.”
Hale looked at Lily.
“He left you control.”
Before we could respond, Hale's phone rang.
He listened.
Then his face changed.
“What?”
He looked at me.
“Ryan is missing.”
My heart stopped.
“Missing?”
“He escaped Diane's house.”
“Where is he?”
Hale's expression was grim.
“His car was found at the river.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
The next morning, a package arrived at the police station.
Inside was Ryan's wedding ring.
And a note.
In black ink.
“ONE HEIR REMAINS.”
I stared at it.
Lily whispered:
“What does that mean?”
I understood immediately.
May you like
Diane no longer needed both of us.
She had decided to eliminate one.
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