Chapter 6 - THE BROTHER WHO NEVER EXISTEDEverything I'd ever believed about Ethan collapsed in seconds.
He stepped out of the barn.
The fake brother.
The stranger.
The person who had spent seventeen years eating at our table.
Calling my mother "Mom."
Calling my father "Dad."
Going to school.
Growing up beside me.
He had been pretending.
I pointed my weapon at him.
"Don't move."
He smiled.
"I knew you'd figure it out eventually."
My mother sobbed.
"Why?"
He looked at her.
"You know why."
"No."
"You were supposed to protect the family."
"I did."
"No."
His voice became cold.
"You protected the wrong people."
My father appeared behind him.
He looked devastated.
"Daniel..."
The man laughed.
"That isn't my name."
My father stared.
"What did you do to my son?"
The man shrugged.
"I didn't do anything."
"Where is Ethan?"
He smiled.
"Still alive."
My heart stopped.
"Where?"
"Somewhere far from here."
I tightened my grip.
"Take me to him."
"You've spent seventeen years looking in the wrong direction."
"What does that mean?"
"It means your brother isn't the person you should have been searching for."
I stared.
"Who then?"
He reached into his coat.
My finger tightened on the trigger.
But instead of a weapon, he pulled out a small photograph.
I looked at it.
It showed me.
At seventeen.
Sitting at a computer.
Behind me was Daniel.
And on the screen was the Iron Dagger ledger.
But there was something else.
A name.
PROJECT MERCURY.
I remembered it.
A flash.
A room.
Daniel speaking.
"Claire, when the time comes, you will know whom to trust."
Then darkness.
I staggered.
"What did you do to me?"
He smiled.
"Nothing."
"What happened to my memory?"
"Your father ordered it."
I turned toward my father.
He looked broken.
"You erased me."
"I saved you."
"No."
My voice shook.
"You erased the only evidence that could have exposed him."
My father nodded.
"I was protecting you."
The fake Ethan stepped closer.
"But he made one mistake."
"What?"
"He didn't erase everything."
He pointed at me.
"You remembered the code."
"What code?"
He smiled.
"The one Daniel needs."
My mother whispered:
"Claire..."
"What code?"
She couldn't answer.
The fake Ethan did.
"The location of the Iron Dagger archive."
Cold silence.
I remembered something.
A sequence.
Seven numbers.
I'd spent years dreaming about it.
Always waking before remembering the end.
Now it surfaced.
I whispered:
"Nine. Three. Seven. Two. One. Eight. Four."
His smile disappeared.
My father looked stunned.
My mother covered her mouth.
"What?"
I asked.
The fake Ethan stepped backward.
"That's impossible."
"What's impossible?"
He pulled a phone from his pocket.
His hands were shaking.
"She remembered."
I looked at my father.
"What is the archive?"
He whispered:
"A physical storage facility."
"Where?"
"Virginia."
"Coordinates."
He shook his head.
"You cannot go there."
"Why?"
"Because it isn't just evidence."
"What is it?"
"A list."
"What list?"
My father stared at me.
"Every person who ever worked for Daniel."
I understood.
Politicians.
Military officers.
Business leaders.
Judges.
Intelligence officials.
Maybe even people still serving.
The archive wasn't merely proof of corruption.
It was a detonator.
Whoever controlled it could destroy half the people connected to the Iron Dagger network.
And Daniel wanted it.
My fake brother looked at me.
"Now you understand."
"Where is the real Ethan?"
He smiled.
"Closer than you think."
Then his phone rang.
He answered.
A man's voice came through the speaker.
I couldn't hear the words.
But I recognized the voice.
My blood turned to ice.
Daniel.
My supposed dead uncle.
The man who had been manipulating my family for decades.
The fake Ethan handed me the phone.
Daniel said:
"Hello, Claire."
I said nothing.
"I've waited seventeen years for you to remember."
"Where are you?"
"Very close."
"Show yourself."
A soft laugh.
"Tomorrow."
"Why?"
"Because tomorrow you're going to discover what your father did after he thought he had lost you."
"What did he do?"
Daniel replied:
"He started another family."
The call ended.
I looked at my father.
He was crying.
"Is it true?"
He couldn't speak.
My mother whispered:
"Your father has another child."
"Who?"
She stared at the fake Ethan.
"No."
My father finally spoke.
"It isn't another child."
I looked at him.
"Then who?"
He swallowed.
"Your sister."
I froze.
"I don't have a sister."
"You do."
"Where is she?"
My father looked toward the distant mansion.
May you like
Then he said:
"She's been living in this house all along."
