Chapter 10 - The Third Brother
Derek took the photograph.
He stared at it for a long time.
Olivia watched him carefully.
“You know what that means.”
“No.”
“You reacted.”
“Because it’s impossible.”
Mason looked at the picture.
“Three brothers.”
Derek shook his head.
“My father had two sons.”
“Maybe he lied.”
Derek laughed bitterly.
“My father lied about everything.”
Grace studied the photograph.
The third man stood slightly behind Adrian.
He was younger.
Perhaps twenty.
His face was partly obscured.
Rebecca looked.
“I’ve seen him.”
Everyone turned.
“Where?”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“At your mother’s funeral.”
Olivia stared.
“What?”
“He stood across the road.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“I thought he was a friend from work.”
Derek took the photograph from her.
“Think.”
Rebecca looked again.
“I remember because Thomas saw him.”
“And?”
“Your father became angry.”
Olivia asked, “Did they speak?”
“No.”
Rebecca hesitated.
“Thomas followed him.”
Olivia felt another piece shift.
Her father had known.
Grace enlarged the photograph on her laptop.
Facial recognition software searched old public records.
Mason asked, “Can you do that?”
“Not legally.”
“No one seems worried about that anymore.”
Grace almost smiled.
The search returned possible matches.
One name stood out.
Daniel Vale.
Age fifty-two.
Former corporate attorney.
Reported dead in 2011.
Derek leaned closer.
“Vale.”
“You know him?”
“My father’s attorney.”
Grace opened an archived obituary.
Daniel Vale had died in a boating accident.
No body recovered.
Olivia asked, “Could he be the third brother?”
Derek stared at the photograph.
“My father had a half-brother named Daniel.”
Mason looked annoyed.
“You just said there were two sons.”
“Two sons of my father.”
Grace understood.
“Daniel was your uncle.”
Derek nodded.
“Maybe.”
Olivia crossed her arms.
“Why ‘maybe’?”
“My grandfather had affairs.”
Mason sighed.
“This family is exhausting.”
Derek ignored him.
Grace searched.
Daniel Vale had worked at Vaughn Strategic.
Then vanished.
Olivia looked at the photograph.
“So what does any of this have to do with my mother?”
Derek answered.
“She may have trusted Daniel.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“Thomas hated him.”
“Why?”
Rebecca looked at Olivia.
“Your father said Daniel ruined everything.”
Olivia’s thoughts raced.
Three men.
Adrian.
Derek’s father.
Daniel.
Her mother trapped between them.
One of them had promised everything.
One of them had betrayed her.
One of them might still be alive.
Grace closed the laptop.
“We need to leave.”
The rideshare arrived.
They split into two cars.
Olivia rode with Grace and Rebecca.
Mason, Derek, and Caleb followed separately.
They drove north.
The roads became darker.
Olivia stared out the window.
Rebecca spoke quietly.
“Your mother was afraid before she died.”
Olivia looked at her.
“You knew?”
“She called me.”
“When?”
“Two nights before the crash.”
“What did she say?”
Rebecca swallowed.
“She said she had made a mistake years earlier.”
“What mistake?”
“She trusted someone because she loved him.”
Olivia felt cold.
“Adrian?”
“She didn’t say.”
Grace looked in the mirror.
“Did she mention Daniel?”
“No.”
“Derek’s father?”
“No.”
Rebecca continued.
“She said she thought she could expose the network from inside.”
Olivia remembered the photograph.
A.V. PROMISED EVERYTHING.
“What did she want you to do?”
“Take you away.”
Olivia stared.
“You?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Rebecca’s eyes filled.
“Your father refused.”
“Why?”
“He said running would prove they were guilty.”
“Guilty of what?”
Rebecca looked away.
“I don’t know.”
Olivia no longer believed that phrase from anyone.
“You know something.”
Rebecca remained silent.
“Aunt Rebecca.”
Grace looked at her.
“Tell her.”
Rebecca exhaled.
“Your father wasn’t just married to your mother.”
Olivia frowned.
“What?”
“He helped her move documents.”
Olivia closed her eyes.
“He was part of it.”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“A lot.”
Rebecca continued.
“They were building a case together.”
“So he knew everything.”
“Maybe not everything.”
Olivia laughed quietly.
“That phrase again.”
Rebecca squeezed her hand.
“He loved you.”
“That doesn’t make the lies disappear.”
“No.”
They drove another hour.
Near midnight, they reached Lake Wren.
The blue house sat at the end of an unpaved road.
The paint had faded.
But it was still blue.
Olivia stepped from the car.
Memories hit immediately.
Her mother laughing on the porch.
Her father carrying groceries.
The smell of pine.
Summer rain.
She stood frozen.
Mason approached.
“You okay?”
“No.”
He nodded.
“Me neither.”
That made her smile faintly.
Derek stayed several feet away.
For once, he did not approach.
Grace unlocked the front door using the key Rebecca carried.
Inside, everything had been preserved.
Furniture covered with sheets.
Photographs on the walls.
A clock stopped at 3:14.
Olivia entered the kitchen.
Yellow curtains.
Exactly as she remembered.
She touched the counter.
Then she saw something new.
Fresh footprints in the dust.
Someone had been here recently.
Grace noticed.
“We’re not alone.”
Derek pointed toward the hallway.
“The basement door.”
It stood open.
Olivia remembered it always being locked.
They moved toward it.
Mason grabbed an iron fireplace tool.
Derek carried a kitchen knife.
Grace held a flashlight.
They descended.
The basement smelled damp.
Boxes lined the walls.
At the far end was a metal cabinet.
Open.
Empty.
Olivia felt disappointment.
“They got here first.”
Derek shook his head.
“No.”
He pointed toward the dust.
The cabinet had been moved recently.
Mason helped pull it aside.
Behind it was a narrow door.
Olivia’s heart raced.
She opened it.
Inside was a hidden room.
Shelves filled with paper files.
Old computers.
Cassette tapes.
Photographs.
Grace whispered, “Oh my God.”
Derek looked stunned.
“This is the archive.”
Olivia stepped inside.
On the desk was a sealed envelope.
Her name.
Again.
She opened it.
Inside was a photograph of her mother holding a newborn baby.
Olivia stared.
The date was five years before Olivia was born.
On the back, her mother had written a name.
DANIEL.
Olivia turned toward Rebecca.
Her aunt looked horrified.
“That’s impossible.”
Olivia looked again.
Her mother had another child.
A son.
Five years before Olivia.
Derek stared at the photograph.
Then at the name.
“Daniel wasn’t the third brother.”
Olivia looked at him.
May you like
He whispered.
“Daniel was your brother.”
