Chapter 5 - THE BROTHER WHO CAME BACK
Nicholas stared at Walter.
“My brother has been dead for six years.”
“No,” Walter said.
The room went cold.
Hannah looked between them.
Nicholas spoke slowly.
“Daniel died in Miami.”
“That is what you were told.”
“My father identified the body.”
“Your father lied.”
Nicholas’s hand tightened around the wheel.
“Be very careful.”
Walter didn’t move.
“Daniel survived.”
Nicholas looked like he had been struck again.
“My brother died in a warehouse fire.”
“A man died.”
“You’re saying it wasn’t him?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Daniel had been stealing from your father.”
Nicholas gave a hollow laugh.
“No.”
“He took six million dollars.”
“No.”
“He also discovered your father was planning to turn several businesses over to you.”
Nicholas’s face lost color.
Walter continued.
“Daniel ran. Your father covered it up because he believed a living traitor was more dangerous to the family name than a dead son.”
Hannah watched Nicholas.
The powerful man who frightened almost everyone around him looked suddenly young.
“What does Rebecca have to do with Daniel?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said she called him.”
“She called a number Samuel Price later traced to a prepaid phone purchased under an alias Daniel once used.”
Nicholas looked at the floor.
Hannah said, “Did Daniel ever know Claire?”
Walter’s silence returned.
Nicholas lifted his head.
“No.”
Walter closed his eyes briefly.
“Walter.”
“Yes.”
Nicholas’s voice became dangerous.
“Yes what?”
“They knew each other.”
Hannah felt the pieces beginning to move.
“When?”
“Before Claire met you.”
Nicholas said nothing.
Walter continued.
“Daniel and Claire attended the same university. Different years, same social circle.”
Nicholas laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“For how long?”
“After your accident.”
Nicholas slammed his fist against the chair arm.
“You’ve been lying to me for eight months!”
“I was trying to find Daniel.”
“You should have told me!”
“And if Daniel caused your crash?”
That stopped him.
Walter stepped closer.
“I had no proof. You were barely alive. Claire never left your hospital room. Every reporter in Chicago was calling her a saint. If I accused her without evidence, you would have thrown me out.”
Nicholas looked at Hannah.
She didn’t disagree.
That made him angrier.
Walter reached into his jacket.
Hannah tensed.
He pulled out a folded photograph.
Placed it on the table.
Nicholas picked it up.
A much younger Claire stood outside a college bar.
Beside her was a dark-haired man with Nicholas’s eyes.
Daniel.
His arm was around her waist.
On the back, handwritten:
D + C. Always.
Nicholas stared at it.
“When was this taken?”
“Twelve years ago.”
Nicholas’s face became unreadable.
Claire had told him they first met five years ago at a museum fundraiser.
Hannah sat beside him.
“You need to breathe.”
“Don’t nurse me right now.”
“I’m not. I’m stopping you from passing out.”
He inhaled.
Slowly.
Walter said, “There’s more.”
Nicholas looked up.
“Of course there is.”
“Samuel Price disappeared too.”
Hannah’s eyes widened.
“When?”
“Three weeks after Rebecca.”
Nicholas stared at Walter.
“And you still stayed quiet?”
Walter’s voice broke slightly.
“I thought whoever did this was watching everyone close to you.”
Hannah looked toward the hall.
“Maybe they still are.”
Her phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
One message.
STOP LOOKING FOR REBECCA.
Hannah’s heart kicked hard.
Another message arrived.
A photograph.
Ethan walking out of school.
Taken that afternoon.
Hannah stood so fast the chair behind her fell.
Nicholas saw her face.
“What happened?”
She showed him the phone.
For the first time, fear replaced anger in Nicholas’s eyes.
May you like
Hannah whispered:
“They know about my brother.”
