The Lie Between Two Brothers
Chapter 04 - The Lie Between Two Brothers
Adrian stood in Rachel's tiny kitchen while Noah ate cereal at the table.
The refrigerator contained almost nothing.
A few eggs.
Half a carton of milk.
Two bottles of medication.
Adrian tried not to look.
Rachel noticed anyway.
"Pity isn't necessary."
"This isn't pity."
"Then what is it?"
Adrian looked at Noah.
"Family."
Rachel laughed bitterly.
"You don't get to use that word yet."
The accusation stung.
But Adrian remained silent.
Rachel slowly told him the story.
Ethan had survived the military vehicle crash.
Badly injured, he spent months recovering overseas under confused identification records.
When he finally returned to the United States, something had changed.
Someone had shown him documents.
Bank transfers.
Legal filings.
Letters.
All apparently proving that Adrian had seized the brothers' inheritance while Ethan was missing and had deliberately declared him dead to secure control of the family company.
"That's insane," Adrian said.
Rachel watched him carefully.
"Ethan believed it."
"I searched for him for years."
"He thought those searches were attempts to silence him."
Adrian stood.
"Who gave him the documents?"
"He never told me."
Rachel walked toward an old wooden cabinet.
From inside, she removed a photograph.
It showed Ethan.
Older.
Thinner.
Alive.
Adrian's knees nearly gave way.
The picture had been taken nine years earlier.
Ethan was holding newborn Noah.
Adrian touched the photograph with shaking fingers.
"My God."
Rachel looked away.
"Ethan loved Noah more than anything."
"Then why did he leave?"
"He said he found proof that someone had been watching us."
Adrian looked up sharply.
"Who?"
"He wouldn't say."
The night Ethan disappeared, he left Rachel a single envelope.
Inside was money, the skull dog tag, and a note.
Rachel handed Adrian the faded paper.
It contained only seven words.
DON'T TRUST THE MAN WHO BUILT YOUR EMPIRE.
Adrian read the sentence twice.
Then a third time.
His stomach turned cold.
Because only one man could fit that description.
Victor Hale.
His father's former business partner.
The man who had taken two orphaned brothers under his wing.
May you like
The man Adrian still called Uncle Victor.
And the chairman of Adrian's company.
