A Brother No One Mentioned
Chapter 02 - A Brother No One Mentioned
Ethan laughed once, but there was nothing amused in it.
“No.”
Nathan did not move.
Lauren looked as though she had been waiting weeks for this moment and dreading every second of it.
Ethan dropped his duffel onto the concrete floor.
“My father had one son.”
Nathan’s jaw tightened. “That’s what you were told.”
“You expect me to believe you walked into my house, touched my father’s bike, spent time alone with my wife, and now you’re suddenly my brother?”
“I didn’t come here for your wife.”
Lauren flinched.
Ethan noticed.
That made everything worse.
Nathan reached slowly toward the workbench and picked up the envelope. He did not hand it over yet.
“I came here because your father left this motorcycle to both of us.”
“He left it to me.”
“That’s what the estate papers said.”
Ethan stepped forward. “Because that’s what his will said.”
“No,” Lauren said.
Ethan turned toward her.
She swallowed.
“That’s what the copy of his will said.”
The garage seemed to become completely silent.
Lauren had never been good at lying. Her face always betrayed her first. Right now, Ethan saw fear, guilt, and something else he could not name.
“How long have you known?”
“Six weeks.”
He stared at her.
Six weeks.
During those six weeks, they had spoken nearly every night. She had asked about his meals, his sleep, the weather, the men in his unit. She had told him the water heater was acting up. She had complained about the neighbor’s dog.
She had never once mentioned Nathan Reed.
Ethan took a slow breath.
“You had six weeks to tell me.”
“I was trying to confirm it.”
“You were trying to hide it.”
“I was trying to protect you until I knew what was real.”
Ethan looked at Nathan again.
“What’s in the envelope?”
Nathan finally extended it.
Ethan took it.
Inside was a photocopy of a handwritten letter dated three months before Edward Cole died.
The first line read:
To my sons, Ethan and Nathan.
Ethan’s throat went dry.
At the bottom was his father’s signature.
But beneath the letter was something even stranger.
A bank statement.
One account.
May you like
Two beneficiaries.
And a balance of $417,000 that Ethan had never known existed.
