CHAPTER 5 – The Man Who Took the Bullet
The gunshot echoed through the warehouse.
Emma screamed.
Ethan instinctively wrapped his body around their son, expecting the unbearable pain.
But it never came.
Instead...
Someone collapsed between them.
Lucas.
His white shirt instantly turned crimson.
For a split second, everyone froze.
Even Ethan.
Lucas looked down at the blood spreading across his chest in disbelief.
Standing twenty feet away, one of his own bodyguards lowered the smoking pistol.
"I never worked for you," the man said coldly.
"I worked for your father."
Lucas coughed violently.
"You... traitor..."
The bodyguard shook his head.
"No. Mr. Carter knew one day your greed would destroy this family."
He pulled a small recording device from his pocket.
"Everything you confessed tonight has been recorded."
Police sirens suddenly filled the harbor.
Red and blue lights flashed through the warehouse windows.
Lucas's hired men dropped their weapons one after another.
There was nowhere left to run.
As officers stormed inside, Lucas desperately reached for Ethan.
"Brother..."
"Help me..."
For years, Ethan had dreamed of making Lucas pay.
Now the man who had ruined his family was bleeding at his feet.
Emma stood silently beside Ethan, holding their son.
She whispered,
"Don't become the monster he wanted you to be."
Ethan looked into his son's innocent eyes.
Then, without saying a word...
He knelt beside Lucas and pressed his hands against the wound.
"Call an ambulance!" Ethan shouted.
The officers stared in shock.
Even Lucas looked confused.
"After... everything I did... why?"
Ethan's eyes filled with tears.
"Because I refuse to let my son grow up knowing his father chose revenge over humanity."
Lucas broke down crying for the first time in his life.
"I was jealous..."
"I spent my whole life trying to become Dad's favorite."
"But he only ever believed in you."
Ethan slowly shook his head.
"No..."
"He believed in both of us."
"You were just too blind to see it."
As paramedics carried Lucas away in handcuffs, one detective approached Ethan with a sealed envelope recovered from Lucas's office.
"It was addressed to you."
Ethan opened it.
Inside was a DNA report...
A birth certificate...
And one handwritten letter from his late father.
The first sentence made his heart stop.
"Ethan... if you're reading this, it means Lucas has finally discovered the secret I kept for over thirty years."
His hands began to tremble.
May you like
The next line changed everything.
"Lucas was never your biological brother."
