Chapter 5 - THE BROTHER WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEADNathan couldn't sleep.
The photograph lay on the table in front of him.
His brother.
Alive.
Impossible.
His attorney had already contacted several private investigators.
Every official record said the boy had died at age seven.
His name was Daniel Cole.
Cause of death:
Accidental drowning.
But the photograph taken that night had changed everything.
Daniel wasn't seven in the photograph.
He was an adult.
At least twenty-five.
Nathan stared at the image.
“Where was this taken?”
His attorney pointed to a tiny mark in the corner.
“A private psychiatric hospital.”
Nathan frowned.
“Which one?”
The attorney looked up.
“One owned by the Cole Foundation.”
Nathan's heart dropped.
The Cole Foundation.
His mother's charity.
The institution that had received millions from the family.
Nathan suddenly remembered stories from childhood.
His mother had often disappeared for days.
She always said she was helping sick children.
Maybe she had been visiting one.
Her own.
Daniel.
The brother Nathan had been told was dead.
Nathan demanded access to the foundation's archives.
The answer came within hours.
Files were missing.
Patient records had been destroyed.
But one employee had kept a copy.
An elderly nurse.
Her name was Margaret.
She agreed to meet Nathan at an abandoned chapel outside the city.
When Nathan arrived, she was waiting.
She looked frightened.
“I knew someone would come eventually.”
Nathan sat across from her.
“Tell me about Daniel.”
Margaret's hands shook.
“He was never supposed to be found.”
“Why?”
“Because your mother was terrified of him.”
Nathan frowned.
“Why would she fear her own son?”
Margaret looked directly into his eyes.
“Because Daniel knew the truth.”
“What truth?”
“That your father wasn't the one running the family.”
Nathan's heart pounded.
“Who was?”
Margaret whispered:
“Your mother.”
Nathan already knew.
But hearing it from someone else made it real.
Margaret continued.
“She controlled the company through secret accounts. She manipulated board members. She bought politicians. She had people followed.”
Nathan's voice cracked.
“And Daniel?”
“He discovered everything.”
“What happened?”
“They tried to silence him.”
“Did they kill him?”
Margaret shook her head.
“No.”
Nathan leaned forward.
“Then where is he?”
Margaret reached into her purse.
She removed a small key.
“He escaped.”
Nathan stared at it.
“What does this open?”
“A storage room beneath the old Cole mansion.”
Nathan froze.
His childhood home.
The mansion had been demolished two years earlier.
Or so he thought.
Margaret smiled sadly.
“Not the mansion you remember.”
She handed him a second photograph.
Nathan looked.
His breath caught.
The photograph showed Daniel standing beside Lily.
Not as a newborn.
Recently.
Very recently.
Nathan's blood ran cold.
“When was this taken?”
“Three days ago.”
Nathan stood.
“Where is my brother?”
Margaret looked toward the chapel doors.
“Closer than you think.”
The doors opened.
A man stepped inside.
Tall.
Thin.
Older than Nathan by only a few years.
His face was scarred.
But his eyes—
Nathan knew those eyes.
The same eyes that stared back from childhood photographs.
Nathan couldn't speak.
The man stopped ten feet away.
“Hello, little brother.”
Nathan's knees nearly gave out.
“Daniel?”
Daniel smiled.
“You finally found me.”
Nathan stepped forward.
“Why did you let me believe you were dead?”
Daniel's expression changed.
“Because I wasn't the one who disappeared.”
“What?”
Daniel looked toward Grace.
Then Lily.
Then back at Nathan.
“Your mother didn't just hide me.”
He took a slow breath.
“She hid the entire truth.”
Nathan whispered:
“What truth?”
Daniel's eyes filled with anger.
“The Cole empire wasn't built by our father.”
Nathan stared.
“Then who built it?”
Daniel answered:
“Our mother stole it.”
Nathan said nothing.
Daniel continued.
“And five years ago, when Grace became pregnant, Mother discovered something that terrified her.”
“What?”
Daniel looked at Lily.
“She discovered that Lily's birth would expose the original ownership of the company.”
Nathan frowned.
“Why?”
“Because the shares your father supposedly inherited weren't his.”
Nathan felt dizzy.
“Whose were they?”
Daniel's answer came quietly.
“Grace's family.”
Silence.
Nathan looked at Grace.
She was crying.
Daniel continued.
“Your mother destroyed Grace's family, stole their company, and used our father to cover it up.”
Nathan's world shattered.
Grace hadn't simply been a maid.
She was the last surviving heir to the empire Nathan thought belonged to him.
And Lily—
Lily was the legal heir to everything.
Suddenly the entire story made sense.
Victoria hadn't wanted Lily dead because she was jealous.
She wanted Lily dead because if Lily survived, Victoria's entire future would disappear.
Nathan looked at Daniel.
“What do we do now?”
Daniel smiled grimly.
“We expose everything.”
Nathan nodded.
Then his phone rang.
It was Victoria.
Nathan answered.
Her voice was strangely calm.
“Congratulations, Nathan.”
He said nothing.
“You found Daniel.”
Nathan's blood turned cold.
“How do you know?”
Victoria laughed softly.
“Because I was the one who found him first.”
Nathan's face changed.
“What did you do to him?”
Victoria's voice became a whisper.
“Nothing.”
A pause.
“Yet.”
Then another voice came through the phone.
A little girl's voice.
“Daddy?”
Nathan froze.
It was Lily.
His daughter's voice.
But Lily was standing directly beside him.
Nathan slowly turned.
Grace was there.
Daniel was there.
Lily was there.
Then who was speaking?
Victoria laughed.
“You should have asked yourself one question before you trusted that child.”
Nathan's blood ran cold.
“What question?”
Victoria whispered:
“Which little girl did you rescue?”
The call ended.
Nathan looked at Lily.
She looked back at him.
Her innocent face suddenly seemed different.
Then Daniel whispered:
“Nathan…”
“What?”
Daniel's face had gone pale.
“I think Victoria has another child.”
Nathan stared at him.
Daniel continued:
“And I think she switched them.”
The chapel doors slammed shut.
And somewhere outside, a child began crying.
The sound was identical to Lily's.
Nathan slowly turned toward the darkness.
For the first time since meeting his daughter, he wondered whether the little girl holding Grace's hand was really Lily.
And then he remembered something.
The silver bracelet.
The bracelet Grace had said Nathan gave her.
Nathan looked at Lily's wrist.
The bracelet was gone.
May you like
His heart stopped.
To be continued…
